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 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
THE SPIRIT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 NEW THOUGHT 
 
 ESSJTS AND ADDRESSES 
 
 BY REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS AND LEADERS 
 EDITED BY 
 
 HORATIO W. DRESSER 
 
 // 
 
 Author of "The Power op Silence." Honorary 
 
 President op the International 
 
 New Thought Alliance 
 
 NEW YORK 
 THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
.117* 
 
 ?^» 
 
 Copyright, 1917, 
 By THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY 
 
 MAY 24 1917 
 It* /, 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The New Thought has attained a more 
 significant stage of development. It now has 
 a successful international organization hold- 
 ing annual conventions that are truly rep- 
 resentative. The various branches of the 
 movement in different states and in foreign 
 countries are working together to foster all 
 that the New Thought stands for at its best. 
 The stage of mere individualism has passed. 
 The time for active cooperation is at hand, 
 and the social values of the movement are 
 receiving greater recognition. This has been 
 especially noticeable since the conventions in 
 San Francisco and Chicago, in 1915 and 1916. 
 Under these circumstances it seems fitting 
 that the history of the movement should be 
 written. It also seems important to bring to- 
 gether in a single volume some of the best 
 essays and addresses by representative leaders. 
 The papers here collected are for the most 
 part from what may be called the middle 
 period of the movement, when it was passing 
 out of the stage denominated "Mental Science" 
 and taking shape as the New Thought. It 
 
vi PREFACE 
 
 was then that the leaders of the movement in 
 New England were pleading for the ideals 
 which are now beginning to be more fully 
 realized. Some of the papers were read at 
 the first annual convention of the Interna- 
 tional Metaphysical League, held in Boston, 
 October, 1889. The other essays were pub- 
 lished in The Mental Healing Monthly and 
 other periodicals. These essays express a 
 common spirit and are as timely now as when 
 first published. Taken collectively they stand 
 for the movement which spread from Boston 
 and New England across the country to Cali- 
 fornia. 
 
 It is not easy to define the New Thought, 
 for its adherents differ in point of approach, 
 in method and interest. The term is here 
 used as it has been employed in the Meta- 
 physical Club of Boston, the purposes of 
 which are: "To promote interest in and the 
 practice of a true spiritual philosophy of life 
 and happiness; to show that through right 
 thinking one's loftiest ideals may be brought 
 into present realization ; and to advance in- 
 telligent and systematic treatment of disease 
 by spiritual and mental methods." The fol- 
 lowing essays point the way beyond mere 
 healing to an interpretation of life from the 
 
PREFACE vii 
 
 inner point of view, disclosing a broadly 
 spiritual vision, a practical approach to Chris- 
 tianity. Several of the essayists call attention 
 to human selfishness as more central than the 
 "erroneous beliefs" more frequently men- 
 tioned by New Thought writers, and others 
 emphasize the great truth that man is an in- 
 strument of the Divine wisdom, in contrast 
 with the customary emphasis on the finite self 
 as the centre of power. An effort is also 
 made to pass beyond the mere optimism of 
 suggestions and affirmations to a well-seasoned 
 spiritual philosophy. Thus the common trend 
 of thought is in line with the constructive 
 spirit pleaded for by Mr. James A. Edgerton, 
 president of the International New Thought 
 Alliance, when he said that the New Thought 
 "not only builds new and better bodies and 
 better conditions, but it should build new and 
 better character, new and better service and, 
 as an inevitable result, a new and better civili- 
 zation. As an evidence of its power to con- 
 struct, it should build an organization as vital, 
 as healthful, as helpful, and as prosperous 
 as itself. This would not only strengthen all 
 the members of the organization, but would 
 stand before the world as a symbol and a 
 representative of the Thought. As a basis 
 
viii PREFACE 
 
 of this unity, all we need is the harmony that 
 grows out of love for mankind and for each 
 other. There never has been a cause that 
 could so help the world if we but live up to 
 our opportunities and give it power through 
 cooperation. We must sink all personal and 
 petty jealousies, all narrowness, all misunder- 
 standings, and manifest the one life in deed 
 as well as in word." 
 
 This volume is sent forth with the hope that 
 it will increase this social, constructive spirit, 
 and arouse new interest in the central prin- 
 ciples of the movement. Such an interest will 
 naturally turn upon an interpretation of the 
 new age in which we live. This in turn will 
 give a larger vision than that made manifest 
 by any one leader or writer. This larger 
 vision disclosed by various teachers working 
 together toward a common end as stated in 
 the concluding chapter, was plainly the ideal 
 of the writers to whom we are indebted for 
 these essays. Some of the writers have fin- 
 ished their earthly life. But their spirit lives 
 on to inspire the present leaders. To the 
 others grateful recognition is given for per- 
 mission to reissue their addresses and essays. 
 No changes have been made that in any way 
 modify the author's views, and the editor's 
 
PREFACE ix 
 
 notes are chiefly historical. The editor has 
 included such papers of his own as best serve 
 to define the New Thought or round out the 
 plan of the volume, not for the sake of in- 
 sisting on any ideas of his own, already pub- 
 lished elsewhere. The New Thought is al- 
 lowed to speak for itself, although in other 
 connections some of us may presently make 
 more effort to estimate it with reference to 
 the mental theory of disease, the method of 
 healing, and the method of spiritual medi- 
 tation. As one who has been associated with 
 the movement since the days when it was 
 denominated the "Boston craze," in 1883, the 
 editor would suggest that the constructive 
 way to estimate the New Thought is from the 
 practical point of view; not by an adverse 
 criticism of its idea of God, its conception of 
 man as "divine," or any other theoretical point 
 sometimes assailed by those who have had no 
 evidence of the truth of mental healing. A 
 movement which has lived so long, and which 
 sprang out of pioneer investigations dating 
 back more than forty years prior to 1883, has 
 within it a truth which has come to stay, and 
 is to be assimilated, not dismissed, because 
 
 it may not readily be defined. „ „ r ^ 
 
 ri. W. U. 
 
 Boston, Tanuary 1, 1917. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction 1 
 
 CHAPTER! 
 
 A Rational and Positive Spiritual Philo- 
 sophy. Henry Wood 17 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 The Abundant Life. Sarah J. Farmer 29 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 The Significance of the New Metaphysical 
 Movement. E. M. Chesley 37 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 The Gospel of Healing. /. W. Winkley 47 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Man a Medium of God. Julius A. Dresser 59 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 Can Disease Be Entirely Destroyed? Emma 
 G. Ware 67 
 
 xi 
 
xii CONTENTS 
 
 FAGS 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 The Disease of Apprehensiveness. Edward 
 A. Pennock 73 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 "Perfect Love Casteth Out Fear/' Walter 
 B. Adams 83 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 A Page from My Inner Life. Fred V. Fuller 89 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 The Ideal Healer. Ellen M. Dyer 97 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 Healing Suggestions. Edward A. Pennock 103 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 The Sermon on the Mount. Horatio W. 
 
 Dresser 109 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 The New Thought. Nannie S. Bond 135 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Concentration. M. E. Carter 153 
 
CONTENTS xiii 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 From Within Outward. Fred V. Fuller 161 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 Is Mental Science Enough? Susie C. Clark 171 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 Criticisms of the New Thought. Henry Wood 185 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 The Science of Life. Annetta G. Dresser 201 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 The Metaphysical Movement 215 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 The Law of the Good. E. M. Chesley 225 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 The New Thought Today 241 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 The Laws of Divine Healing. Horatio W. 
 Dresser 253 
 
 Bibliography 287 
 
THE SPIRIT OF THE 
 NEW THOUGHT 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 The term "New Thought" was first used 
 as the name of a little periodical issued in 
 Melrose, Mass., in 1894, and later by repre- 
 sentatives of the rational wing of the mental- 
 healing movement in general in place of the 
 term formerly employed, "Mental Science." 
 The theory was essentially a "new" thought 
 for most of its devotees, a new attitude 
 towards life, hence the term was in a sense 
 appropriate. It is not an easy term to define, 
 nowadays, in view of the many variations of 
 therapeutic belief. But let us endeavor to 
 discover the underlying principles which have 
 most widely appealed to its devotees, making 
 as little as possible of the variations. 
 
 The New Thought is a theory and method 
 of mental life with special reference to heal- 
 ing, and the fostering of attitudes, modes of 
 1 
 
2 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 conduct and beliefs which make for health 
 and general welfare. The theory in brief is 
 that man leads an essentially mental life, in- 
 fluenced, shaped and controlled by anticipa- 
 tions, hopes and suggestions. If one is 
 downhearted, depressed and inactive, one 
 meets the circumstances of life in a negative 
 manner, weakening before them, inviting fail- 
 ure. If one is hopeful, courageous, energetic, 
 one may meet essentially the same circum- 
 stances in such a way as to turn them into 
 success. Thus the event which might other- 
 wise be a curse, a blight, a source of misery 
 and pain, is turned into one of joy and bless- 
 ing. Life is largely what we make of it, 
 what we bring to and call out of it. Hence 
 the importance of cultivating optimistic, con- 
 structive and productive beliefs. Beliefs lead 
 to attitudes and these determine conduct. 
 
 The method originated by P. P. Quimby, 
 the pioneer of the movement, consists in apply- 
 ing through the favorable conditions of re- 
 ceptivity and mental treatment the principles 
 and affirmations which are thus found to per- 
 tain to life as a whole. If one is ill, suffering 
 from depression, excitement, and prolonged 
 pain, the resource is to become quiet, reflec- 
 tive, expectant of good results, then proceed 
 
INTRODUCTION 3 
 
 to put before this responsive consciousness 
 the ideas and images which most positively 
 suggest the desired condition. I must see 
 myself in thought strong, well, and free; 
 hopeful, encouraged, successful in all my un- 
 dertakings; and I must instil this new con- 
 sciousness into my mind in such a manner, by 
 quietly yet persistently affirming it, as to pro- 
 duce an impression, a change which will lead 
 to subconscious and other benefits. The proof 
 of the method is its use. Experience must 
 reveal what explanation cannot. Thus the 
 New Thought is essentially empirical. 
 
 The next step consists in applying this 
 method to the healing of others. Here is 
 where the practitioner of the New Thought 
 excels, in comparison with the methods em- 
 ployed by those who use hypnotism or merely 
 audible suggestion. Hypnotism may involve 
 too great surrender to another's will, with the 
 unpleasant possibility that the operator cannot 
 immediately awaken his subject out of the 
 hypnosis; while audible suggestion is not 
 likely to be so effective as silent treatment. 
 The silence and receptivity of the patient, 
 while seated expectantly by the mental the- 
 rapeutist, offer favorable conditions for im- 
 pressing on the patient's subconsciousness the 
 
4 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 desired mental imagery or affirmation. The 
 mental process is supplemented and strength- 
 ened by the spiritual phase of the silent treat- 
 ment, namely, the realization of the presence 
 of God. The therapeutist's "realization" is 
 the occasion or means, while the immanent 
 divine power is the efficiency which secures 
 the end. The realization must be uplifting, 
 forceful, and persistent, in order to make due 
 impression on the patient's mind. The idea 
 which takes root subconsciously brings results 
 according to its power to evoke similar ideas 
 and associations. 
 
 The application of these principles to life 
 in general grows naturally out of the success 
 attained in applying them to health. Hence 
 everyone is advised to begin by learning the 
 values of auto-suggestion and silent treatment. 
 An affirmation like Henry Wood's statement, 
 "Pain is friendly," suggests an entire attitude 
 toward life. If the power behind pain is 
 beneficent, let me cease all rebellion, resist- 
 ance and fear; let me transfer my attention 
 from the process, the sensation or pain, to the 
 power behind, adopting imagery which sug- 
 gests perfect health and freedom. Then let 
 me think this principle to its completion as a 
 practical theory of life, let me cut away all 
 
INTRODUCTION 5 
 
 obstacles, inhibit all doubts, and check all 
 fears. If I give myself resolutely to the spiri- 
 tual ideal, I thereby change the center of 
 equilibrium and any number of favorable 
 consequences may follow. The new con- 
 sciousness fully wrought out becomes a phil- 
 osophy. 
 
 Thus the New Thought fosters individual 
 development, and leads each man to believe 
 he can go to the supreme sources of life. He 
 may make of his theory and method a spiritual 
 gospel by turning afresh to the New Testa- 
 ment to find it a guide to the efficient religious 
 life. The Christ then becomes an inner or 
 universal principle, accessible to every soul. 
 
 The important point for one who would test 
 the New Thought as a workable theory and 
 method is this: Begin where you are, with 
 any problem or need, taking it under advise- 
 ment, seeking causes, the forces at work, and 
 the ends to be attained. Reflect that you are 
 dealing with actual life, with changing and 
 promising conditions. Dwell on what you 
 are, your present difficulty and needs only 
 long enough to see what forces have brought 
 you where you stand, then about face and 
 begin to create the ideal or desirable condi- 
 tions, first in thought and imagination, then 
 
6 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 in responsiveness and conduct. Cease to be 
 anxious and fearful and learn to be calm. 
 Cease to rebel and to blame others. Take the 
 matter home to yourself and begin by reform- 
 ing your attitude and habitual expectations. 
 Create your ideal future and move steadily 
 toward it, make use of every favoring 
 thought, moment of silence, and quiet hour 
 of reflection. 1 
 
 The essence of the New Thought, as I 
 understand it, is the oneness of life; the great 
 truth, namely, that all things work together 
 toward a high ideal in the kingdom of the 
 Spirit. Otherwise stated, it is the truth that 
 God lives with us, in every moment of exist- 
 ence, in every experience, every sorrow and 
 every struggle. 
 
 This is an old, old truth. The wisest men 
 of all ages have believed in the oneness of 
 life. The world's spiritual leaders have taught 
 that we live and move and have our being in 
 the Father. Yet the New Thought aims to 
 advance beyond all other schools in the en- 
 deavor to realize this great truth. Others 
 have argued for it as the basis of philosophic 
 
 1 The above is reprinted from Practical Ideals, 
 Boston. What follows is from an address at the 
 annual convention of the Metaphysical League, 1899. 
 
INTRODUCTION 7 
 
 thought, or it has been taught as a part of the 
 creed of the Church. With many it is merely 
 a theory; they do not take this truth home, 
 so that it may become the foundation of daily 
 life, applying even to the healing of disease. 
 
 The first demand of the New Thought is 
 that its followers shall dwell upon this truth 
 of truths until they shall speak of it not 
 merely as a theory but as a life. Only those 
 who live in the Spirit — who know its peace, 
 its beauty, and its love — can do the highest 
 work. For there are many kinds of healing, 
 from merely personal influence, affirmation, 
 and thought- transfer, to spiritual healing, 
 where there is no argument, no attempt to 
 influence or to control, but an application of 
 power — the practice of the presence of God, 
 Consequently, this higher work is still largely 
 an ideal; for it means entire devotion to the 
 work of the Father. It is service. It is out- 
 going love — fellowship. It is poise — self- 
 mastery carried to that level of attainment 
 where the mere presence is sufficient not alone 
 to heal, but to inspire, to encourage, to uplift. 
 
 The search for this high ideal is guided 
 by the conviction that the soul is of supreme 
 worth in life. It is for this that we suffer 
 and strive. It is for this that we are born in 
 
8 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 ignorance. We are burdened so that by per- 
 sonally attaining freedom we may become 
 strong, perfect, beautiful. 
 
 He who gives of the spirit, he who heals 
 by his presence, must then first free his 
 own soul, must understand life, and become 
 broadly self-masterful, before he can help 
 others to attain freedom. He must live much 
 in the silence, in receptivity, seeking not so 
 much to realize the Father's presence through 
 his own active thought as to let the Father 
 reveal himself. In those calm moments of 
 companionship, when all the world of sensa- 
 tion is put aside, the soul discovers that here 
 and now we are environed by another king- 
 dom, a greater power, a supernal presence. 
 One feels instantly at home in that presence, 
 as though one had wandered far in search of 
 an abiding-place and found it not. One is 
 fed with the food that satisfies. The soul 
 expands and grows in the light of the Spirit. 
 It knows no obstacles. It looks abroad upon 
 life with a sense of dominion over all. It is 
 free. It is joyful, with that gladdest, fullest 
 joy which is too deep for words, too still and 
 peaceful to betray itself excitedly. 
 
 But how does this spiritual experience apply 
 to the ills of the flesh? By thus developing 
 
INTRODUCTION 9 
 
 an inner center of peace, trust, freedom, hap- 
 piness. When the soul is calm it can still the 
 nerves, free the mind from fear, and apply 
 the power of the spirit upon the disordered 
 physical organism. All growth, all change 
 proceeds in this way. First, the seed or cell, 
 then its development and externalization. All 
 growth is from a center outward. In like 
 manner all changes that are caused by thought 
 take their rise in an idea. Higher yet, all 
 spiritual growth results from the quickening 
 of the spirit from within — at a center, at a 
 point. 
 
 The clue to the understanding of life, from 
 the point of view of its spiritual oneness, is 
 therefore evolution. It is because all things 
 are perfected by a process of gradual trans- 
 formation and attainment, everywhere reveal- 
 ing the same laws, because the sorrows and 
 struggles and dark places are needed, that 
 we can declare that all is a spiritual Whole. 
 
 From the physical point of view, life is 
 fragmentary. The physical organism is likely 
 to be attacked by external disease. It is sub- 
 ject to accidents. One is more or less the 
 child of fortune, of climate, of intellectual and 
 social environment. Pain is called evil. Dis- 
 ease is regarded as an enemy. There is no 
 
10 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 certainty that all is for the best. But from the 
 point of view of spiritual insight into the 
 unity of things, it is not some fortuitous ex- 
 ternal force that governs our hardships and 
 diseases. The individual, the inner man, the 
 soul, is the decisive factor. Our. circum- 
 stances are what the inner man attracts. 
 Suffering is a sign that the remedial powers 
 of Nature are seeking to restore or to regain 
 harmony. All things are found to be parts 
 of one system because the spirit perceives 
 their meaning from within, as a whole. And 
 in general we learn why our environment is 
 what it is — our life is a mixture of the pleas- 
 urable and the painful because all these ex- 
 periences are needed as factors in our spiritual 
 evolution. 
 
 As a consequence, if one is wise, if one un- 
 derstands one's self, all that comes into one's 
 life may be turned to evolutionary account. 
 Not that every circumstance is wholly the best 
 in itself, but that it may be turned to account 
 by the attitude in which it is received. Suffer- 
 ing, for example, is a very great burden in 
 itself, but may be met by an attitude that 
 quickly lessens or overcomes it. Misfortune 
 is hard to bear; also many difficulties of the 
 home, business, and social life. But if wisely 
 
INTRODUCTION 11 
 
 met they prove to be opportunities for the 
 development of character — occasions in which 
 one may grow strong by maintaining poise, 
 and spiritual by manifesting love. 
 
 The visible world is secondary. Its func- 
 tion is manifestation. It is not a cause in it- 
 self. It is incapable of originating diseases, 
 hostile conditions, and circumstances to tor- 
 ment man. All that comes from it, comes 
 because it is needed in the spiritual evolution 
 of things. 
 
 In order to attain the right attitude, the 
 New Thought disciple therefore seeks power 
 in the silent inner world, where evolution be- 
 gins. He declares that if the heart is right, 
 if we first adjust ourselves, all shall be right. 
 The thought realm, the realm of creative soul 
 power, is the kingdom of heaven from the 
 attainment of which all that is needed shall 
 follow. It is the center of all peace, all poise, 
 all power. For, to him who stands there, 
 there is nothing to fear. He is the com- 
 mander. He is the creative agent. He is the 
 free man, for whom all things are cared for 
 by the Father. 
 
 In this same silent realm also arise those 
 conditions that cause our misery and our dis- 
 ease. They grow from a tiny seed. They 
 
12 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 begin in fear, distrust, despair, morbid self- 
 consciousness, ill-will, undue consciousness of 
 sensation, and the rest. From the first wrong- 
 turning a wrong evolution results. Thus the 
 physical world takes its clue from the mental. 
 Physical evolution follows spiritual involu- 
 tion. The physical evolution or manifesta- 
 tion is real. It is surely existent. The New 
 Thought makes no attempt to ignore it. But 
 since the physical evolution is the outcome of 
 the mental or spiritual involution, it must be 
 controlled or modified by the spirit from 
 within. Thus the same law that teaches the 
 evolution of disease and misery shows how 
 by instituting the right evolution all may be 
 altered and harmony restored. 
 
 This again points to the central idea of the 
 oneness of life. In all things there is but one 
 law. That law is good. It is the foundation 
 principle of the universe. But, through igno- 
 rance, man temporarily suffers and causes 
 suffering because he knows not the univer- 
 sality of the law — because he looks outside of 
 his own inner world for the cause. 
 
 Another phase of the New Tnought doc- 
 trine of the oneness of life is the theory that 
 all souls are united in the mental world. We 
 are not detached, separated individuals affect- 
 
INTRODUCTION 13 
 
 ing one another only through physical inter- 
 change. We are bound together by ties of 
 thought — by thought atmospheres and emo- 
 tions. It is not necessary physically to speak 
 or act in order to make ourselves felt in the 
 world. Every thought is like a seed blown 
 here and there by the wind, or carried from 
 place to place. It is capable of evolving, if 
 it fall in good soil. It tends to gravitate to 
 its own environment. It is likely to affect 
 people for good or for ill. It is transmitted 
 out and around us with a rapidity surpassing 
 that of waves of sound or light. Conse- 
 quently, our thoughts must be guarded — that 
 we send out only the good, the hopeful, and 
 true. 
 
 But by the same law of thought interchange 
 that sometimes works for ill we may accom- 
 plish unmeasured good. The thought-organ- 
 ism is here, ready to serve us; it is for us to 
 use that organism in the consciousness of what 
 our spiritual fellowship means — the spiritual 
 unity of life. Thus the process is essentially 
 soul cooperation. It is, first, recognition on 
 the part of the helper or healer of his own 
 oneness with the Spirit of life ; then the reali- 
 zation of the patient's oneness with the same 
 Source; and, finally, active cooperation with 
 
14 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 the Spirit, by whose power health and peace 
 are to be restored. There is surely no true 
 unity but this. There is no other wholly com- 
 mon ground for fellowship. In the Spirit all 
 men are one; it is in the outer life, in their 
 arguments, that they are inharmonious. They 
 all came out from the one Source. In reality 
 they are always at one there. Consciously or 
 unconsciously, they are living the same life. 
 This deep undercurrent must then be brought 
 more and more to the surface, that the same 
 beautiful law may regulate our physical and 
 social life. It is this thought that I would 
 emphasize above all others as to one to bear 
 away with us — the thought of the deep-lying 
 Spirit of life, welling up in us all, uniting us 
 all, bearing us ceaselessly forward to perfec- 
 tion — to the freedom of the soul. 
 
 In all times of need or trouble, when dis- 
 turbing experiences come, when the way is 
 not clear, pause for a time, break connection 
 with the troublesome thought, and retire to 
 the haven of the Spirit — the home of rest and 
 peace. Send your thoughts out into the great 
 universe until you feel the one Life eternally 
 and inimitably extended there. Repose in it. 
 Confide your problems to it. Become recep- 
 tive and listen. Expand to the proportions 
 
INTRODUCTION 15 
 
 of its high ideal for you. Rejoice in its pres- 
 ence, in the privileges you possess in seeking 
 it. Then again ask and listen. 
 
 When its moving comes, follow wherever 
 it leads and trust the outcome. Or if no 
 prompting comes, at least bear away with you 
 the consciousness of its presence, of your one- 
 ness with it, of the joy and peace that came 
 when you enlarged your thought to become 
 receptive. This is the essence of it all; this 
 is the spirit. To apprehend this essence and 
 to feel this spirit is to possess a priceless gift 
 of power and helpfulness. This is the spirit 
 of the New Thought, the glad tidings it de- 
 clares to the world — the great revelation of 
 spiritual unity and beneficent evolution by the 
 heeding of which not only disease shall cease, 
 but war and unhappiness. It is another form 
 of the gospel of the Christ. It is a new inter- 
 pretation of the evangel of love. 
 
A RATIONAL AND POSITIVE 
 SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 
 
 BY HENRY WOOD 
 
 [Mr. Wood was for twenty years one of the lead- 
 ing authors and promoters of the New Thought 
 movement, and was actively identified with the Meta- 
 physical Club of Boston, founded 1895. He is best 
 known by such books as Ideal Suggestion Through 
 Mental Photography, and New Thought Simplified. 
 The following is from an address at the first annual 
 convention of the International Metaphysical League, 
 held in Boston, Oct. 24-26, 1899.] 
 
 The movement which in a broad way is 
 represented by this convention will present 
 itself in a variety of aspects to different ob- 
 servers. Even could we clearly define it in 
 its essence, its validity would yet depend upon 
 the personal point of view. Whether called 
 the New Thought, the Metaphysical Move- 
 ment, Practical Idealism, or by some other 
 name, it will be variously rated by the ma- 
 jority as intangible speculation or illogical as- 
 sumption, while to the lesser number who have 
 17 
 
18 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 recognized its truth, scope, and usefulness, its 
 value can hardly be exaggerated. 
 
 In the twenty minutes at my disposal, I shall 
 try to interpret concisely its motive and pur- 
 pose. I wish to emphasize its rationality and 
 spirituality. Doubtless there are those pres- 
 ent who come as lookers-on, as well as those 
 who are already identified with the movement. 
 Let me first offer a few suggestions to those 
 who may term themselves outsiders, in an 
 attempt to present simply the rationality of 
 the new movement. We call it new, while 
 in a deep sense no truth is new. But eternal 
 and immutable principles are constantly re- 
 ceiving fresh application and adaptation. A 
 thousand years ago, electricity was waiting 
 to do its part in the operation of trolley-cars ; 
 but a new movement was required, simply of 
 human cooperation. Innumerable beneficent 
 laws of undreamed potency — physical, psy- 
 chical, and spiritual — are still waiting, we 
 might almost say impatiently, for recognition. 
 Could we touch them with the wand of human 
 cooperation they would spring from latency 
 into wonderful concrete activity. We may 
 almost imagine Truth, personified, upon 
 bended knee, beseeching us to receive her 
 welcome blessing. 
 
SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 19 
 
 How we have unwittingly limited the realm 
 of orderly law! Conventional science, while 
 of late theoretically admitting its universality, 
 still has eyes for little beyond the physical 
 realm. A few investigators, however, are en- 
 gaged in tracing the lines of truth as they 
 run through the realm of psychology. But 
 these studies are confined mainly to the specu- 
 lative tests and phenomena of institutional 
 laboratories, with little or no attempt to ap- 
 ply them to practical human welfare. A few 
 educators have attempted something more 
 useful, by turning the light of psychology 
 upon their own professional work. But any 
 earnest recognition and helpful application of 
 psychical and spiritual law in thought-educa- 
 tion, the systematic use of ideals, and other 
 helpful exercises in the sphere of mind, are 
 yet limited to the unconventional minority. 
 
 The materialism of the age has illustration 
 in the popular degradation of the noble term 
 "metaphysical," which simply means above or 
 beyond the physical. When with a single 
 thrust one wishes to extinguish the argument 
 of an opponent, he usually retorts, "mere 
 metaphysical speculation." 
 
 The moment we can convince the scientific 
 world that the continuity of cause and effect 
 
20 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 is unbroken through the three zones of man's 
 nature, and that the higher is normally su- 
 preme, thus forming a scientific basis for our 
 principles, we shall graduate from any suspi- 
 cion of crankiness and be tolerated as sane 
 and regular. Then — not long hence — people 
 will be ready to avow the higher philosophy, 
 with the significant comment — "Yes; we al- 
 ways thought so!" 
 
 It must be shown that faith, instead of be- 
 ing a blind, expectant emotion, has a per- 
 fectly logical foundation; that thought, in its 
 purpose, control, and effects, is amenable to 
 intelligible law; and that a mixture of cer- 
 tain ingredients in the mental compound is 
 as sure of a legitimate result as is that of 
 material substances in the chemist's labora- 
 tory. It must be made evident that all dis- 
 appointment in the practical demonstration of 
 our principles is not in the least due to the 
 uncertainty of their trend, but to local and 
 personal limitations in the hospitality of their 
 reception. 
 
 The scientific exactitude of the New 
 Thought, to a large class of minds, has been 
 obscured by the disproportionate prominence 
 that has been given to its so-called religious 
 side. The term religion has been so long used 
 
SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 21 
 
 to define some particular system, outside of 
 applied moral and spiritual law, that it is not 
 easy to rescue and broaden it. 
 
 The real touchstone of truth for any phi- 
 losophy or system is: Does it fit the consti- 
 tution, needs, and capacity of man? Does it 
 nourish, harmonize, and develop his threefold 
 nature? Any guidance that can most effec- 
 tively teach him the laws of his own being; 
 refine and spiritualize his inner life and 
 forces; aid his higher nature to maintain 
 orderly rule over that which should be subor- 
 dinate; and unfold and bring into manifesta- 
 tion the latent divinity within him — must be 
 beneficent and normal. 
 
 The reasonable position of the New 
 Thought has been largely overlooked. It is 
 evolutionary in its spirit, quiet in its methods, 
 and to a great degree operative without ob- 
 servation. It depends more upon simple 
 statements of truth than upon external organi- 
 zation. Its silent inner life is penetrating and 
 permeating existing churches, though it or- 
 ganizes few of its own. It is no surface 
 affair, for "still waters run deep." These are 
 some of the reasons why it is not more talked 
 about. 
 
 Perhaps, to the average man, the therapeu- 
 
22 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 tic phase of the New Thought has awakened 
 the most interest. When understood, the in- 
 telligent application of the laws and forces of 
 mind for the eradication of mental and phys- 
 ical ills contains no element of magic, super- 
 naturalism, or strangeness. Modern material- 
 ism has carelessly disregarded the logic of the 
 innumerable historic straws that point to the 
 fact that the body is the composite outcome 
 and expression of past mental beliefs and 
 activities. All the so-called miracles of heal- 
 ing with which history is crowded are due 
 to the conscious or unconscious use of a law 
 that can be defined and followed. It savors 
 of an ignorant, superstitious, or blindly skep- 
 tical bias, either to deny their validity on the 
 one hand, or on the other to attribute them 
 to a supernatural interruption of the moral 
 order. True, it may be a baseless supersti- 
 tion that starts the mental forces into opera- 
 tion, or even a fetish that awakens the 
 activity of a powerful molding faith. The 
 momentum of a stone that rolls down hill is 
 the same whether it was started by accident 
 or design. . . . 
 
 How shall faith be invoked? The ignorant 
 and superstitious may awaken it, though it is 
 always uncertain, by resorting to some shrine, 
 
SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 23 
 
 holy relic, priest, or in former time to some 
 king who was supposed to embody a divine 
 prerogative, to be touched; but how shall one 
 who is intelligent, and believes the world is 
 governed by orderly law, command the desired 
 power ? Has the Creator put a premium upon 
 ignorance and superstition? Are calm reason 
 and knowledge a positive disadvantage to the 
 exercise of a healing faith? Such a conclu- 
 sion is unthinkable. We then come to the 
 necessity of an intelligent and scientific basis 
 for the saving power. The useful supersti- 
 tion, even though it be strong to-day, may be 
 dispelled by to-morrow. Only truth can have 
 any guarantee of permanent availability. The 
 definition of faith must be broadened. If 
 "thy faith" is to make thee whole, it must lay 
 hold upon eternal principles, and to lay hold 
 of them it must know how to find them. It 
 must be too wise to expect a capricious inter- 
 vention, on the divine part, in an economy 
 already perfect. No! God's work is fully 
 complete, and human conformity is all that is 
 lacking. How, then, if we are above the plane 
 of superstition, can we logically cooperate 
 with the overcoming force ? 
 
 The power is already latent in every hu- 
 man soul. Through systematic thought-con- 
 
24 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 centration it may be unfolded into dominant 
 activity in the consciousness. By law, we 
 become or grow like our ruling ideal. We 
 are to regulate the physiological processes by 
 a mental renewing that will be back of them; 
 this, not by any sudden or strained effort, 
 but by cultivated growth. Instead of vainly 
 dwelling on the surface of effects, we must 
 take hold of underlying causation. We are 
 souls having bodies, not bodies having souls. 
 
 Shall the man be in bondage to the handful 
 of dust he has molded and erected into tem- 
 porary shape, or shall he affirm lawful supe- 
 riority and rule? Shall the abounding and 
 universal divine Life be consciously received 
 and cooperated with, or shall it be barred out 
 through materialism and a false sense of sep- 
 aration? If the body be subordinate and ex- 
 pressive, the claims of mind or man must be 
 advanced to the desired ideal as potentially 
 present, here and now. Then, through the 
 intricate processes already noted, the physical 
 subordinate will correspond and index the 
 same. Shall the potter rule the clay, or the 
 clay the potter? 
 
 Made as we are in the image of God, and 
 equipped by well-ordered law to mold and out- 
 picture the higher prerogatives of the soul, 
 
SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 25 
 
 how have we lingered in a worse than Egyp- 
 tian bondage to sense and matter! However, 
 matter, so called, is good, and only misplace- 
 ment makes it otherwise. But the law of 
 gravitation is no more normal and constant 
 than are the corresponding laws of mind and 
 spirit, which are written in our constitution 
 and awaiting our cooperation. 
 
 Man, wittingly or unwittingly, creates his 
 own conditions. Health or disease, happiness 
 or misery, life or death, and heaven or hell 
 — all primarily growths in the human con- 
 sciousness — are respectively brought into ac- 
 tive expression through well-ascertained law. 
 When the great Adamic, or evolutionary, step 
 was taken from animality and instinct into 
 the realm of reason and recognition of the 
 moral order, man became a virtual creator. 
 His mind is his kingdom, and he peoples it 
 with subjects. Through their subjective se- 
 lection and molding, the objective world also 
 falls into line and receives corresponding 
 color, form, and quality. 
 
 Let me, in closing, offer one or two sug- 
 gestions, more especially to those already in 
 the New Thought; for we all want one an- 
 other's point of view. What will best pro- 
 mote the spread of the Truth? It seems to 
 
26 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 me, singleness of aim. We need to be free 
 from diffusive beguilements and entangling 
 alliances. Avoid side issues and by-paths. 
 Though rational, the New Thought is distinc- 
 tively spiritual. It does not deal directly 
 with surface phenomena, but with their inner 
 springs of causation. I believe the danger 
 that most threatens the New Thought to-day 
 is its more or less intimate amalgamation with 
 other reforms, whether real or theoretical, 
 upon lower planes. If we scatter our ener- 
 gies in the attempted repression of mere ef- 
 fects, the true momentum of the movement 
 will be lessened or lost. Without uttering a 
 word pro or con concerning political social- 
 ism, or theoretical land systems, tax systems, 
 money systems, labor systems, and other po- 
 litical questions, I believe the New Thought 
 should be kept above and distinct. A true 
 moral socialism will result from a free spir- 
 itual individualism. We have before us an 
 object-lesson in the spread of one system, 
 which we believe contains a great basic truth, 
 even though associated with certain dogmatic 
 extremes. Whence its great momentum? The 
 secret is, it has never lost itself in the endless 
 mazes of materialism. 1 As individuals, and in 
 
 1 Mr. Wood here refers to Christian Science. 
 
SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 27 
 
 other relations, we may take such positions 
 as we please; but do not let us overload, to 
 the sinking point, a spiritual philosophy whose 
 message humanity is waiting to hear. The 
 external face of society, like the human coun- 
 tenance, is but the exact expression of the in- 
 ner forces. Better the ruddy glow upon the 
 cheeks when it comes from within, than a 
 coating of cosmetics from without. 
 
 The New Thought believes in the potency 
 of God and Law, and that an aggressive pes- 
 simism, emphasizing the evil of human con- 
 ditions, is unscientific and harmful, even when 
 well meant. The seat of man's inharmony 
 and unhappiness lies deeper. Even were ex- 
 ternal conditions perfect, a divine restlessness 
 would possess him until he found God to be 
 within and without — All in all. . . . 
 
II 
 
 THE ABUNDANT LIFE 
 
 BY SARAH J. FARMER 
 
 [Miss Farmer, well known as the founder of the 
 Green Acre Conferences, Eliot, Maine, established 
 1894, gave the mental-healing movement a prominent 
 place in the early years. The following is from an 
 address in which she interpreted the New Thought 
 in her own terms.] 
 
 "I am come that they might have life, and 
 that they might have it more abundantly." 
 
 Down through the ages these words have 
 run like a joy-bell. We have heard them. 
 We have repeated them again and again. To- 
 day they sound in our ears and bring a new 
 revelation. We call it the New Thought, but 
 the only thought in the universe is God, "the 
 same yesterday, to-day, and forever." 
 
 What is the newness about which we talk 
 like children? 
 
 This, too, is answered in the old, familiar 
 words — "newness of life." It is the new rev- 
 elation that comes to the individual when for 
 the first time there flashes in upon him the 
 meaning of the Incarnation — the Power that 
 29 
 
30 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 worketh in us. We hold our breath as the 
 mysterious words are opened to our rapt gaze 
 — "that ye might be filled with all the fulness 
 of the Godhead, bodily." What! — we who 
 have thought ourselves "weak worms of the 
 dust," are we called to this high goal? With 
 a humility that sends us to our knees, but 
 with a joy that the world never before gave 
 us — a joy too deep for words — the conviction 
 fills our being that nothing less than the at- 
 tainment of this birthright can satisfy the im- 
 mortal soul. 
 
 In this moment a voice breaks the silence: 
 "Thou hast made us for Thyself, and the 
 heart never resteth till it findeth rest in Thee." 
 St. Augustine walked in this Path, pointed out 
 by sages of old, and found it the path of peace. 
 We, too, must find it; but how? We have 
 put such a halo about the head of the one who 
 came to be to us "the Way, the Truth, and 
 the Life," that our eyes have been blinded 
 and we have groped our way in darkness, 
 sometimes crying out with Siddartha — 
 
 "I would not let one cry 
 Whom I could save ! How can it be that Brahm 
 Would make a world, and keep it miserable, 
 Since, if all powerful, he leaves it so, 
 He is not good, and if not powerful 
 He is not God?" 
 
THE ABUNDANT LIFE 31 
 
 In this maze of doubt, how can we find our 
 way? By changing our thinking. "Repent, 
 repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," 
 was the warning cry of one in the wilderness. 
 It had been to him a wilderness — he had found 
 it the kingdom of heaven; and his warning 
 cry, "Repent!" means (literally translated) 
 "Change your thinking!" You think life a 
 vale of tears, where only misery and trouble 
 reign; change your thinking and you will 
 know it to be the kingdom of heaven, where 
 love, peace, and joy abound. This is what 
 the phrase New Thought means. It is simply 
 putting ourselves in new relation to the world 
 about us by changing our thought concerning 
 it. The moment that we begin to conceive 
 of the creative power of thought, the abun- 
 dant Life has consciously begun in us. It 
 was always there, for it is the only Life ; but 
 while we were unconscious of it we missed 
 its joy. Now we know that we alone are re- 
 sponsible for our environment, our attitude of 
 mind, our misery or peace. We are not creat- 
 ures of circumstance; we are creators, "heirs 
 of God and joint heirs with Christ." In this 
 moment of revelation our relation to Him 
 changes. Hitherto we have followed Him 
 afar off, worshiping Him with a blind faith 
 
32 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 that sometimes carried us to mountain-tops 
 of revelation and sometimes left us in valleys 
 of despair. 
 
 Now, all is changed. Jesus, who grasped 
 this truth and through overcoming attained 
 his birthright of the Son of God, becomes to 
 us a Savior in very deed and truth — a media- 
 tor between this vision of God to which we 
 are called and the narrow life of self that we 
 have known. Though fashioned in the form 
 of man, He thought it "not robbery to be 
 equal with God." With fear and trembling, 
 we listen to His words with a new spirit of 
 interpretation and find that He calls us to 
 manifest not only the power of the indwell- 
 ing God that He showed to the world, but to 
 do "even greater" things. Men and women 
 who listen, ask yourselves this question : Can 
 it be possible that it has taken Christianity 
 nineteen hundred years to come to the reali- 
 zation that we who take upon ourselves the 
 name of Christ are called to reach the plane 
 of life that Jesus of Nazareth reached, and 
 to do the works that He did before the fulness 
 of time can come in which He can reveal the 
 "other things" that even then He had to tell 
 but could not because His disciples could not 
 bear them? 
 
THE ABUNDANT LIFE 33 
 
 The whole creation groaneth and travaileth 
 in birth, waiting for the manifestation of the 
 Sons of God — waiting for you and me to turn 
 from seeking after the things of self and to 
 give ourselves in gladness of heart, first to 
 realizing within ourselves the fruits of the 
 abundant Life, and then to bestowing it upon 
 others by simply being. Said Carlyle: 
 
 "The ideal is in thyself; the impediment, too, is 
 in thyself; thy condition is but the stuff thou art 
 to shape that same ideal out of. . . .0 thou that 
 pinest in the imprisonment of the Actual and criest 
 bitterly to the gods for a kingdom wherein to rule 
 and create, know this of a truth: The thing thou 
 seekest is already within thee, 'here or nowhere, 
 couldst thou only see it!'" 
 
 We give unto others only that which Emer- 
 son says we cannot give — that which emanates 
 from us. To speak the word that shall impart 
 the abundant Life we must consciously be that 
 Life. We must say with Paul — who caught 
 the secret that Jesus sought in vain to impart 
 to His disciples, and that He could teach them 
 only by going away from them — "It is no 
 longer I that live, but Christ that liveth in 
 me." Did the thought ever come to you that 
 Jesus took those words upon His lips when 
 He said? — "The words that ye hear me speak 
 
34 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 and the deeds that ye see me do are not mine, 
 but the Father's who dwelleth in me." That 
 He, too, must overcome the temptations of the 
 Son of Man before he could consciously be- 
 come the Son of God, to whom all power is 
 given in heaven and earth? Tempted at all 
 points like as we are, and yet without sin, 
 through overcoming he rose in his conscious- 
 ness, step by step, toward union with his 
 Father, until at last the full glory burst upon 
 Him and men hid their faces, unable to bear 
 its radiant effulgence. 
 
 In all ages of the past, thousands of years 
 before the birth of Jesus, great souls caught 
 the vision of the Christ and tried to attain 
 unto it by making the choice between "the 
 way of greatness or the way of good," and 
 by treading the paths of life "with patient, 
 stainless feet." In this way Siddartha be- 
 came the Buddha. A kingdom was not too 
 great a price for him to pay for this "pearl 
 of great price" — the abundant Life. . . . 
 
 Six hundred years later Jesus showed us a 
 harder task — to be "in the world, and not of 
 it" ; to hold wealth as a wise steward and ad- 
 minister it for the good of humanity, not for 
 the gratification of self. 
 
 There were times in the life of Jesus when 
 
THE ABUNDANT LIFE 35 
 
 he went apart to the mountains or the desert 
 and spent whole nights in prayer, not as an 
 example for us to follow, but because the 
 world-thought weighed him down so utterly 
 that only by going apart into the silence could 
 He keep His conscious connection with the 
 Father, which was the source of His power 
 and the strength that enabled Him to finish 
 the work His Father had given Him to 
 do. . . . 
 
 How shall the hunger and thirst after right- 
 eousness that bring us here be satisfied ? Does 
 it seem too great for you? Too wonderful? 
 You cannot attain unto it? "Come unto Me, 
 all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and 
 I will give you rest." What is rest? Listen 
 to Henry Drummond, of our own day, who 
 not only found it himself but imparted the 
 secret to others, especially to young men: 
 
 "It is the mind at leisure from itself. It is the 
 perfect poise of the soul; the absolute adjustment of 
 the inward man to the stress of all outward things; 
 the preparedness against every emergency; the sta- 
 bility of assured convictions; the eternal calm of an 
 invulnerable faith; the repose of a heart set deep 
 in God. It is the mood of the man who says, with 
 Browning, 'God's in his heaven, all's right with the 
 world.'" 
 
36 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 How can we attain such faith ? By taking 
 our mind from such securities as houses, lands, 
 stocks, bonds, safety- vaults, banks, and even 
 friends, and, placing it upon Him whose these 
 are. 
 
 The Vedas say, "Those who think on Me, 
 with love and devotion in their hearts, find 
 all that they need at their very door, brought 
 by myself" [literally, on my shoulders]. Did 
 you ever fully realize what it means to be God's 
 "shoulders" to the saint who trusts to His 
 providing care; or to be the hands by which 
 He leads home some wandering child ; or to be 
 His feet to carry to those who know Him not 
 the gospel of peace? If not, go home to the 
 silence of your own room. Enter the closet 
 of your own soul, and pray to the Father to 
 reveal himself in you. Prayer is the ladder 
 by which we climb to heights of conscious 
 being where our prayer is answered before it 
 is uttered. "Only in meditation the Mystery 
 speaks to us." 
 
Ill 
 
 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE NEW 
 METAPHYSICAL MOVEMENT 
 
 BY EGBERT MORSE CHESLEY, A.M. 
 
 [Mr. Chesley was a pioneer devotee of the New 
 Thought in Boston. Well informed in the history 
 of philosophy, he saw in the central principles of the 
 movement a "new metaphysical" statement of the 
 best idealism of the past. Since the pioneer days 
 he has taught philosophy in a liberal theological 
 school and practised spiritual healing. The follow- 
 ing is from an address before the Metaphysical 
 Club, Boston, 1898.] 
 
 In the first place, the New Metaphysical 
 Movement stands for the deeper realities of 
 the universe, the things which are eternal, the 
 things which are above and beyond the outer 
 and phenomenal realm. The word metaphys- 
 ics does not now signify, as it did among the 
 followers of Aristotle, that which comes after 
 physics. It has, in the history of philosophy, 
 37 
 
38 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 acquired a far profounder meaning. It sig- 
 nifies, and this meaning is now well recog- 
 nized among thinkers, the science of real be- 
 ing, as distinguished from mere changeable, 
 phenomenal being. It signifies ontology, the 
 science of that which eternally is, as distin- 
 guished from that which merely appears in 
 outer, temporary manifestation. The New 
 Metaphysical Movement, therefore, concerns 
 itself with absolute truth, as distinguished 
 from relative truth. And it especially con- 
 cerns itself with the practical application of 
 that absolute Truth of Being in all the affairs 
 of our daily and hourly living. It calls men 
 back to a recognition of the grand and noume- 
 nal verities, the things which pertain to their 
 higher rational and eternal natures. 
 
 It is a grand movement of the Spirit. It 
 emphasizes God as the one only Absolute 
 Reality. It emphasizes the kingdom of God 
 to be established on this earth of ours, here 
 and now. It calls men back to the actual, prac- 
 tical recognition of that sublime declaration of 
 the Apostle Paul, "In him we live and move 
 and have our being." The New Thought 
 Movement does not merely hold this mighty 
 spiritual truth as a beautiful intellectual the- 
 ory to be talked about and wondered over and 
 
METAPHYSICAL MOVEMENT 39 
 
 logically dissected; but it bends all its ener- 
 gies to the living this great fact of our life in 
 God. Since we do indeed live and move and 
 have our being in the one Infinite Ocean of 
 the Divine Life, since we are rays of the one 
 Eternal Logos and are in our inmost, essen- 
 tial being, of the same divine substance, the 
 New Philosophy of Health believes in recog- 
 nizing, using, claiming, this stupendous truth. 
 Our true and Higher Self, then, is absolute 
 in its nature. It is without sin, without weak- 
 ness, without disease, without death. Let the 
 Immortal Ego know and claim its divine in- 
 heritance here and now. Let it claim its 
 freedom, its wholeness, its peace, its power, its 
 poise. Let us continue to think the thoughts 
 of love and truth and wisdom, as befits our 
 royal birthright. And that splendid affirma- 
 tion of the truth of our being, that under- 
 standing and that life, shall revolutionize our 
 whole psychical and physical nature and trans- 
 form gradually our whole environment. It 
 shall quicken all the vital energies of the 
 body; it shall establish health and sanity on 
 firm, rational and enduring foundations. 
 
 The New Metaphysical Movement accepts 
 the far-reaching and transcendent truth de- 
 clared by Jesus, the world's greatest spiritual 
 
40 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 teacher, as set forth in the sixth chapter of the 
 Gospel of Matthew. I allude to the truth of 
 perfect faith in God, the truth that God is 
 our All-Sufficiency in all things — a truth re- 
 quiring great renunciation of a personal, self- 
 ish will. The wisdom of Jesus is so deep, 
 so high, so metaphysical in this teaching of 
 perfect dependence on the Good Law that the 
 Christian world has in large part failed to 
 understand him, failed to appreciate the 
 beauty and the richness of his philosophy of 
 life. The professed disciples of the Master 
 have tacitly questioned his good judgment in 
 this regard, and have too often slurred over 
 this simple part of his teaching as impracti- 
 cal, fanciful, and forsooth, unscientific. As 
 though empirical science could judge of the 
 divine truths of the Spirit! Consequently 
 they have never given themselves unreserv- 
 edly to this great Law of the Good, this 
 eternal law of all true life; they have not 
 really believed in it; they have not complied 
 with its conditions ; and so they have not been 
 able to prove its beneficent working. Instead 
 of seeking that divine freedom which comes 
 through obedience, they have fallen back too 
 often into the mire of materialism and worldly 
 doubt. The New Philosophy of Health is 
 
METAPHYSICAL MOVEMENT 41 
 
 earnestly endeavoring to resurrect this sublime 
 doctrine of our entire dependence on God, — 
 this doctrine which abolishes the demon of 
 fear, worry and anxiety, and which restores 
 to the soul its true life and health and free- 
 dom in a universe of Good. If God is omni- 
 present, omniscient and omnipotent, it is high 
 time we awoke to a more practical recogni- 
 tion of the plain and simple facts. "Do not 
 cumber yourself," says Emerson, "with fruit- 
 less pains to mend and remedy remote ef- 
 fects ; make first the soul erect, and all things 
 will go well." That is, put the soul in right 
 and true relations with the eternal reality of 
 things, and all will go well. This is the exact, 
 practical teaching of the New Metaphysics. 
 
 The New Thought Movement is a much 
 needed revival of genuine, practical Chris- 
 tianity. The finer and pro founder truths of 
 the Christian religion have been buried away 
 under the ignorance and scepticism, the for- 
 malism and materialism of centuries of unde- 
 velopment. The Light which lighteth every 
 man coming into the world is beginning to 
 shine out anew. The New Thought Move- 
 ment is in the order of Divine providence. It 
 has of course its crudities, its over-statements, 
 its illogical and uncultured adherents, even 
 
42 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 its perversions of fundamental truth. But all 
 these things and more has Christianity itself 
 had to contend with. These errors will drop 
 away as the race evolves. The heart of the 
 Metaphysical Movement is good and sound 
 and strong. It is a genuine fulfilment of that 
 great prophetic declaration of Jesus that he 
 had many more things to communicate to the 
 world, but it was not ready to receive them; 
 but that when the Spirit of Truth should 
 come, it would lead the world into all the 
 truth — that is, gradually, as its needs require. 
 The New Thought Movement I take to be 
 one of these grand revelations of the Eternal 
 Logos, ever working in human history. And 
 the new philosophy has come to stay, for it 
 is founded upon a bed-rock of Divine reality. 
 It has a certain eternal significance. It really 
 means the regeneration and transformation of 
 the whole life of a man — a work which goes 
 on unceasingly with all the future progress 
 of the soul. 
 
 The glory of the New Philosophy, its one 
 preeminent virtue, is its insistence on the 
 practical applicability of the great and divine 
 truths of the Spirit here and now. Not 
 theory — we have too much of that — but life 
 and life more abundant, that is, its unceasing 
 
METAPHYSICAL MOVEMENT 43 
 
 claim, that is its perennial aspiration. Jesus 
 went about teaching Divine truth. He also 
 went about healing the bodies of the sick. 
 The two things are inseparable. The Divine 
 truth thoroughly lived, realized, believed it, 
 has power to heal the ills of the body as well 
 as the ills of the soul. To affirm the one and 
 deny the possibility of the other is to my mind 
 a perversion of the teaching of Jesus. I take 
 it to be disloyalty to the truth of the Christian 
 religion in its wholeness. Mind and body 
 constitute a unit. The physical is a continu- 
 ous expression of the mental and the spiritual 
 life. The healing of the diseases of the body 
 through the power of mind is not done in 
 any supernatural way, but in strict accordance 
 with the divinely natural laws of the higher 
 spiritual order. The call to all the churches 
 of to-day is : back to the teaching of the Mas- 
 ter; back to the plainest, the simplest, the 
 most elementary truths of the Spirit. "And 
 the glory which thou, O Father, hast given 
 unto me, I have given unto them." "And the 
 things that I do, they shall do also, and 
 greater things than these shall they do." We 
 are not only "heirs of God" — his riches, his 
 wisdom, and his power — but we are "fellow- 
 heirs with Christ." 
 
44 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 The New Philosophy of Health emphasizes 
 the eternal reality of the spirit and the essen- 
 tial unreality of matter. For this it has been 
 criticized by those who do not know. But in 
 this doctrine of Idealism it has the support 
 and companionship of the greatest and wisest 
 thinkers of all time. In this elect company 
 we find the ancient and venerable Vedanta 
 philosophy of India. Here we find the mod- 
 ern German transcendental philosophy — the 
 richest and ripest product of our country — 
 represented by Kant, Fichte, Schelling, and 
 Hegel. Here we find Parmenides, Plato and 
 Plotinus. Here we find Spinoza, Berkeley, 
 Leibnitz and Emerson. To this goal now 
 rapidly tends all modern physical science. 
 For modern science teaches that the cells, and 
 even the ultimate atoms, of the body are 
 psychical in their nature, in other words, are 
 living intelligences. It resolves the whole 
 eternal physical world into a supersensible 
 cosmic ether, filled with innumerable vortex- 
 motion etheric atoms. It is now dimly dis- 
 cerning, through its most advanced repre- 
 sentatives, that all matter is but a mode of 
 motion, or lower vibration of Spirit. It even 
 contends, with Mr. Herbert Spencer and 
 many others, that the whole material uni- 
 
METAPHYSICAL MOVEMENT 45 
 
 verse, with all its splendid laws and processes, 
 is but a vast, orderly and persistent system of 
 mental impressions, or vivid states of con- 
 sciousness, wrought in our minds by that one 
 absolute Reality, the Infinite and Unknowable 
 Power which men call God. So it is always. 
 The slow-moving, cautious, skeptical, scien- 
 tific intellect ultimately confirms, in its own 
 empirical way, the high intuitions of a more 
 spiritual metaphysical philosophy. 
 
 For some time past I have had occasion to 
 follow the literature of the New Thought 
 pretty closely and to watch its progress. 1 I 
 find that it is more and more becoming a great 
 and widespread movement in the interests of 
 the higher spiritual life, in the interests of a 
 truer and deeper philosophy of the whole 
 nature of man. The New Metaphysics em- 
 phasizes the central truths taught by the seers 
 and saviors of our race — the life of God in 
 the soul of man, the divinity of human na- 
 ture, the common brotherhood of the children 
 of God, the eternal reality of the Good. The 
 bodily healing is coming to be regarded as 
 secondary, the growth and formation of char- 
 
 1 Mr. Chesley was one of the pioneer devotees of 
 the movement in Boston, when it was known as 
 Mental Science. 
 
46 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 acter primary and all-important. Doubtless 
 the New Thought Movement will fulfill its 
 high aims and promises in this regard more 
 and more perfectly in the ever-advancing 
 order of human evolution. 
 
IV 
 
 THE GOSPEL OF HEALING 
 
 BY J. W. WINKLEY, M.D. 
 
 [Dr. Winkley, formerly a Unitarian minister, and 
 at one time a student of Christian Science, was the 
 leader in establishing conferences, in Boston, on 
 "Mental Science," as the New Thought was then 
 called, also in gathering the group of Sunday wor- 
 shipers who organized the Church of the Divine 
 Unity, in 1886. Later he was associated with The 
 Mental Healing Monthly, the first New Thought 
 periodical, and was a prime mover in establishing 
 the Metaphysical Club. His last service to the cause 
 he loved so well was the editing and publishing of 
 Practical Ideals, a periodical devoted to New 
 Thought interests.] 
 
 It is proposed to discuss here the question 
 so often raised — Is this healing of our day by 
 mental or spiritual means Christian ? The 
 scientific man may ask very naturally, Can 
 it be considered scientifically? The inquiries 
 are also often made: Is it practical? Is it 
 right morally? So the Christian Church may 
 
 47 
 
48 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 very properly ask, Does it belong to Chris- 
 tianity? Has it the sanction and authority of 
 Christ? The scientific character of the heal- 
 ing can be left to the scientists. The question 
 of the practicality and the beneficence of the 
 healing may be known "by its fruits." To 
 determine, however, whether or not the heal- 
 ing is Christian, one must decide what Jesus 
 Christ himself taught — what he, as its author, 
 gave to the world as Christianity. Christians 
 of every name and denomination will agree, of 
 course, that his teaching, commands, and pre- 
 cepts ; his practice, life, and example, to- 
 gether make up Christianity. 
 
 What, then, is Christianity as Jesus gave it 
 in his teaching, acts, and life? One thing is 
 plain — Jesus taught or preached his word of 
 truth. But another fact is equally plain — he 
 did what are called "works" in the language 
 of the New Testament, or healing in the lan- 
 guage of to-day. The Christ, in fact, gave 
 himself largely, as the gospel records tell us, 
 to "healing all manner of sickness and all 
 manner of disease among the people" during 
 his public life ; indeed, he laid great stress 
 upon these works as an essential part of his 
 mission. They were very prominent in the 
 ministry of Jesus. They made up, with his 
 
THE GOSPEL OF HEALING 49 
 
 preaching, his whole public work. In fact, he 
 did nothing else. Just consider the note- 
 worthy fact: he founded no institutions, 
 asylums, or hospitals; organized no charities, 
 founded no religious orders or societies of any 
 kind. He did not even establish a church ; 
 nor did he leave directions for the formation 
 of any of these. But he did go about "doing 
 good," doing healing — the works of Him that 
 sent him. Further, what were his commands 
 to his followers? Surely it is safe to affirm 
 that in Christ's instructions to his disciples he 
 made the ministry of healing more prominent 
 if anything than the ministry of preaching. 
 He charged them, when he commissioned and 
 sent them forth, to "heal the sick." This was 
 a direct, plain, emphatic command given to 
 his followers of all times. It cannot be denied 
 that Jesus urged and emphasized the gospel 
 works no loss positively than the gospel 
 word. 
 
 Now, if these conclusions are correct, it 
 becomes of interest and moment to inquire 
 whether these important instructions of the 
 Master have been obeyed. Has the Christian 
 Church as a body, have the ministers of the 
 Church generally, carried out, or are they now 
 carrying out, the full commands of Christ if 
 
50 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 they neglect to do the works? Surely, the 
 answer to this question must be in the main 
 a negative one. Who, then, are fulfilling — 
 who are practising this part of Christianity? 
 It seems certain that no unprejudiced person 
 will deny that the doers of the works to-day, 
 including all sections of them — the so-called 
 Faith-curists, Mind-curers, Christian Scien- 
 tists, mental healers, etc. — in their way and 
 according to their light, have tried and are 
 trying sincerely, honestly, earnestly to obey 
 the command of the great Physician. These 
 healers by spiritual means have their limita- 
 tions ; they may fall short in their efforts 
 often ; their healing may not be equal or even 
 exactly to the Master's. But we submit that, 
 inasmuch as they have earnestly and in good 
 faith endeavored to obey his command to do 
 the works, they are entitled to stand as his 
 true followers, and that their works of heal- 
 ing are Christian indeed. Yet we have heard 
 Christian ministers characterize as impiety, 
 even blasphemy, their endeavor to follow in 
 the footsteps and do the behests of the great 
 Teacher. 
 
 It is well to ask here why it is that the 
 Christian Church in the main — why the Chris- 
 tian clergy as a body — all these centuries past 
 
THE GOSPEL OF HEALING 51 
 
 have ignored the Master's command, and ne- 
 glected to do the works he enjoined. Is it 
 because the works were of no importance in 
 their eyes, of no essential value, and that 
 therefore there was no need of their con- 
 tinuance? Then why did Jesus lay so great 
 stress upon them? This would clearly indi- 
 cate that he himself deemed them of vital im- 
 portance, of even transcendent worth. He de- 
 voted to the doing of them almost his whole 
 ministry; and that was largely what he set 
 his disciples about, and directed them to do 
 in their future ministry. 
 
 Is it not possible that some great truths 
 or principles or laws were disclosed by the 
 works — were thereby illustrated and en- 
 forced; truths, principles, or laws, moral and 
 spiritual, of far-reaching and transcendent 
 import, far above and beyond all mere physi- 
 cal healing or cure of any bodily disease? It 
 does certainly appear so. And those who 
 have essayed to do works of healing in our 
 day have evidently caught a glimpse of those 
 wondrous revealings — have learned some- 
 thing of their deep significance and of their 
 inestimable value. What are those revela- 
 tions ? 
 
 First of all, perhaps, the healing brings 
 
52 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 home forcibly to the mind as indeed a fact 
 that which has ever gladdened the hearts of 
 religious people to find reason to believe and 
 evidence to prove, namely, what is often at- 
 tempted to express by the words "the su- 
 premacy of the Spirit," which should surely 
 find appreciation with us all in these days of 
 gross materialism. All this healing, done by 
 immaterial or spiritual means, showing the 
 power of the mind over the body, telling of 
 the omnipotence of spirit over all things, is 
 wholly against the prevalent doctrines of 
 materialism, and on the side of the highest 
 spiritual philosophy. 
 
 Next, is it not plain from the accounts in 
 the Gospels that Jesus thought the works made 
 manifest the existence and power of the In- 
 finite Spirit and were a revelation indeed of 
 God, the Father? In fact he said so again 
 and again. He apparently emphasized the 
 works for one reason as tangible evidence that 
 the infinite One, and He alone, is the real 
 Healer of disease — the one and only healing 
 Power; that He is ever ready and lovingly 
 desirous to restore and save His children from 
 their bodily infirmities, as He is to remedy, 
 by the same gracious power, their ills of mind 
 and heart and soul. And so again to-day the 
 
THE GOSPEL OF HEALING 53 
 
 existence, the reality of God, and withal a 
 higher conception of Him, are thus impressed 
 upon the mind ; His immanence upon the con- 
 sciousness; yea, His goodness and His love 
 are made manifest by His life-giving and re- 
 storative power in the healing. 
 
 Again, it is the united testimony, probably, 
 of those engaged in the practical healing, as 
 well as of all subjects of the cure, that they 
 gain by it a new estimate of man. They see 
 or experience the power of the spirit over the 
 body. That points unmistakably to man's 
 other and higher spiritual powers and poten- 
 tialities, which only need to be aroused and 
 drawn out. They learn that health, physical 
 as well as mental and moral health, is within 
 man, and not something to be imported from 
 without. That fact opens their eyes to the 
 other and grander possessions — attributes, 
 qualities, and powers wrapped up in him, and 
 which only need unfolding to become mani- 
 fest and effective. They are brought to 
 realize, as never before or in any other way, 
 that man is truly created in the "image of 
 God." It is made a living truth to them that 
 mankind are His children, His offspring, sons 
 and daughters of His, partakers of His nature, 
 sharers in His power, possessors of His life, 
 
54 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 and joined to Him in oneness. In other words, 
 the essential goodness and the inherent great- 
 ness of man — his divine, yea, deific nature — 
 are thus revealed. And thus it is that the 
 real spiritual character, the God-nature of 
 man, so opens up in the light and through 
 the application of the healing as to give in 
 very truth a new revelation of Him. The gos- 
 pel works of Jesus, as his gospel word, were 
 indeed a wondrous revelation of man, the 
 child, not less than of God, the Father. 
 
 And yet, again, it is the experience surely 
 of all mental physicians that, to cure physical 
 disease of moral origin effectively, it is nec- 
 essary first to remove the moral disorder that 
 is causative and primary. From this fact is 
 deduced naturally as readily the broad funda- 
 mental truth of the moral or spiritual basis 
 of physical health — that goodness, virtue, af- 
 fection, faith, and moral qualities generally 
 are basic health, and on the other hand that 
 vice, immorality, selfishness, and sin are the 
 primary disorders. 
 
 Once more, the truth akin to the one above, 
 more or less clearly seen, is that sympathy and 
 affection — true, deep, and vital — are the most 
 powerful lever to move, convert, and trans- 
 form the patient: to bring forth to life and 
 
THE GOSPEL OF HEALING 55 
 
 wholeness the man, the real man. All your 
 experience in healing, it is safe to affirm, 
 friends, teaches you that this is true: that 
 unselfish love — and the true is unselfish — is 
 the fundamental and transcendent spiritual 
 power; the primal attribute of God; the root, 
 basic quality in man, from which all others 
 spring. And, oppositely, it is beginning to 
 be plain to all men that selfishness is the root, 
 the primary disorder, from which all other 
 and minor moral ills arise — hate, anger, fear, 
 cowardice, ill-will, malice, injustice, and 
 wrong: all vices, crime, and sin. Yes, verily, 
 selfishness is the great world disorder from 
 which the human race has suffered and still 
 suffers. 
 
 But time will hardly allow of even a brief 
 mention of the great truths revealed by the 
 healing gospel. There are others of scarcely 
 less moment, perhaps. The all-beneficence of 
 the healing power, experienced in the cure 
 by the subject of it, impresses forcibly the 
 mind and wins irresistibly the heart to be- 
 lieve with a great faith in the "Eternal Good- 
 ness," the burden of our poet Whittier's 
 beautiful song — that God, the Father, is Good- 
 ness Absolute, as says the Hindu, and that 
 Infinite Goodness and Love are at the center 
 
56 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 of the Universe, at the heart of God and 
 man. 
 
 Another fact fraught with deep significance 
 is learned in the simple physical healing, 
 namely, that mind, or thought, has the power 
 to reach mind, by virtue, it would seem, of a 
 natural inner relationship and independent of 
 all external media. When en rapport, soul 
 touches soul. Yes, spirit can come into union 
 and communion with spirit when exalted by 
 faith and inspired by affection. This seems 
 to reveal clearly and conclusively that "unity 
 of Spirit" is a reality; that indeed "all Mind 
 is one." A momentous truth ! 
 
 And, friends, you who have had experience 
 in the application of this spiritual therapeutic 
 method will doubtless testify that it has solved 
 for you, or goes far to solve for you, many 
 other problems. For instance, it has helped 
 you, in some measure at least, to a solution of 
 the great problem of evil. And, again, it has 
 aided you, immensely to your own personal, 
 practical benefit, to solve the problem of hap- 
 piness. And it will be your testimony prob- 
 ably that it has helped you to a solution of the 
 still more important problem of immortality. 
 That being made conscious — being made to 
 feel, by its teaching, that you, as all men, are 
 
THE GOSPEL OF HEALING 57 
 
 immortal here and now — doubt of future im- 
 mortality falls away; yea, future immortality 
 loses largely its meaning. 
 
 Now, friends, if the healing in your hands 
 is found to have anything near the profound 
 meaning here represented, then can we not 
 believe that the works wrought by Jesus had 
 all this and much more and greater signifi- 
 cance; that he knew it well, and emphasized 
 and enjoined the works so predominantly for 
 that reason; that they were, and he expected 
 them to be, a revelation to man of the highest 
 spiritual truths, principles, and laws? 
 
 Finally, to sum up the whole matter, may 
 we not conclude — is it not the simple truth — 
 that Jesus' gospel was a twofold dispensation, 
 namely, his word of truth to be preached and 
 his works of healing to be performed? One 
 was the word to be made known, the other 
 the works to be put into practice. And they 
 were to go inseparably together — the two 
 halves of his Christianity that made and make 
 the rounded whole. 
 
 We have said that Jesus did not found 
 asylums, hospitals, reformatories, or penal or 
 charitable institutions. Did he not do some- 
 thing possibly of greater importance? Is it 
 not possible that, if this other half of the 
 
58 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 whole of his Christianity — the works — had 
 been carried with the word "into all the 
 world," the asylums, hospitals, reformatories, 
 and even prisons would have been rendered 
 largely unnecessary? Might not the evils for 
 which they exist have been largely cured or 
 prevented? .... 
 
MAN A MEDIUM OF GOD 
 
 BY JULIUS A. DRESSER 
 
 [The author of the following discourse, delivered 
 in the Church of the Divine Unity, Boston, in 1887, 
 and published in the Mental Healing Monthly, Bos- 
 ton, went to Mr. Quimby, in Portland, Me., as a 
 patient in 1860, and became an ardent follower and 
 expounder of Quimby's views. In response to per- 
 sistent requests, he published The True History of 
 Mental Science, in 1887, to show the origin of mental 
 healing in the United States, in contrast with a view 
 which attributed the new truth to a "revelation" in 
 1866. He had no desire to enter into controversy, 
 but believed that justice should be shown the man 
 who unselfishly labored to establish a higher method 
 of healing the sick. His own work with the sick 
 continued until his death in 1893.] 
 
 It is generally recognized by the world that 
 man received his powers and capabilities from 
 his Maker; and it is believed by a majority 
 of the Christian world that to some extent 
 God exists within the members of His human 
 family, but in what shape or to what degree 
 He lives within them, they have little or no 
 59 
 
60 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 knowledge, nor even a definite belief. But 
 that man is really a medium for God is clear 
 from the highest spiritual evidences. From 
 these evidences it is apparent that man is not 
 complete in himself; he is only complete in 
 God. Paul says that "our sufficiency is of 
 God," and is not of ourselves; and he also 
 carries the idea in the same connection that 
 man should not take any credit to himself for 
 any power of capability as being of himself. 
 
 This divine mediumship is a vital thing to 
 understand. For it reveals the fact that, in- 
 stead of living in comparative weakness and 
 inefficiency, we can approach infinite powers, 
 just so far as we become open to and under- 
 stand them. How shall we become open to 
 these infinite powers? By understanding this 
 mediumship or, in other words, by recognizing 
 that whatever powers we each possess are not 
 merely our own, but are God in us, and there- 
 fore are and must be infinite. I do not dis- 
 criminate between powers for good and bad, 
 because no one will do wrong except through 
 ignorance. 
 
 A wise man knows that it does not pay to 
 be bad or to conduct himself in an evil man- 
 ner, and the unwise one is forced to learn 
 this. There is but one direction in which it 
 
MAN A MEDIUM OF GOD 61 
 
 pays to move, in word or deed, and that is 
 the right one. And the knowledge that our 
 powers and capabilities are God in us takes 
 away all desire to act recklessly or otherwise 
 than with the best of motives and for the best 
 of results. 
 
 The understanding of this mediumship is 
 gained by knowing ourselves analytically, or 
 in proportion as we thus know ourselves; 
 but the worst enemy we have in getting this 
 understanding and in enjoying the infinite 
 power spoken of is selfishness. Man is born 
 in ignorance, but he can grow out of that 
 condition, if he overcomes his selfishness. In 
 proportion as he is impeded by this, it is like 
 a dead weight to defeat his progress toward 
 light and truth. For, if he is in reality a 
 medium for that which is not himself, the 
 more he is bound up in his own personal com- 
 fort, his own affairs, good or bad, the less 
 can that power use him; and his selfishness 
 prevents his finding out his true status, it 
 blinds his eyes and seals him in ignorance. 
 
 As we were born in ignorance of ourselves 
 and of the truth, what arrangement did God 
 make for working through us, how is He to 
 get his work done that each of us is assigned 
 to do? Indirectly, through our natural be- 
 
62 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 lief in the necessity for action, but, directly, 
 through love. This element of love is a 
 prompting toward another; and, as our igno- 
 rance of life and truth makes us largely de- 
 pendent on each other for help of various 
 kinds, the flow of love and the good will of 
 charity is thereby promoted, and this opens 
 us to an exercise of the God-powers within 
 us, which are not only love, but all powers 
 by which we perform our daily works and 
 duties. 
 
 This spontaneous love, the very opposite of 
 selfishness, opens out the soul to a full and 
 free action for whatever benefit or cause we 
 may promote, be it that of our families, our 
 neighbors and friends, or the general good; 
 and its stream is always laden with the dews 
 of heaven for every thirsty soul it may help. 
 Love, therefore, is the avenue for God through 
 us. And we know very well that love is born 
 of truth; while selfishness is born of igno- 
 rance, a soil in which the truth cannot flour- 
 ish. Here we see why Paul said, "Let no 
 man seek his own, but each his neighbors 
 good," because man's real power, God, works 
 through one for another ; and love unites us 
 all in one bond of brotherhood, and in our 
 common Father, who is the one only Reality. 
 
MAN A MEDIUM OF GOD 63 
 
 And we see why Jesus said so much about 
 oneness with his disciples, and why he laid 
 down such far-reaching and apparently super- 
 human laws for the practice of love, such as 
 "Love your enemies," "Do good to them that 
 hate you and despitefully use you." It was 
 because love is the very flood-gate through 
 which flow man's real and true powers, and 
 the wisdom that makes success and breaks 
 down all obstacles. Christ's law of love, 
 therefore, is the very economy of life, the 
 open door for the powers of the Infinite to 
 flow through us to secure our prosperity and 
 to do mighty works. 
 
 This mediumship is again expressed when 
 we are told to work out our own salvation ; 
 and the consolation is added that "it is God 
 who worketh in you both to will and to do of 
 his good pleasure." And this is a consolation ; 
 for what the passage means is that God works 
 through me, for instance, to will and to do 
 whatever it is necessary for me to do. There- 
 fore, God Himself is in every act of my life. 
 And in every duty that we have to perform, 
 and in every opportunity for doing good to 
 another, if we do it willingly. Even to a 
 denial of self, where our personal preference 
 stands in the way, God is as much in it (our 
 
64 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 deed) as we are, and even more, because God 
 is the reality of our being, and without Him 
 we are nothing. 
 
 What a glorious life does this describe ! 
 What a majority against all difficulties ! 
 Surely, there can be no failure in such a life, 
 except beyond where we understand ; and 
 God is constantly leading us into all truth and 
 understanding. This is where selfishness does 
 not stand in the way, and where no prefer- 
 ence of our own, outside of simple necessity 
 or justice to ourselves, is allowed to prevent 
 a willing and an earnest doing of whatever 
 seems to be the better way or the kindly act, 
 or any duty in any given circumstances. Also 
 where no personal reputation or self-glory is 
 ever desired, and the cause of truth and the 
 good of humanity, or of our neighbor, is ever 
 uppermost. 
 
 Man is not a man in the abstract, but in the 
 concrete. That is, he is an organized being; 
 and it is as such that we need to deal with 
 Him and understand Him. Now, if God fills 
 all space, He certainly is within man — in every 
 human being, so far as space is concerned, 
 and that practically establishes God in man. 1 
 
 1 That is, God is in truth the "Omnipresent Wis- 
 dom," the essayist's favorite term for God. — Ed. 
 
MAN A MEDIUM OF GOD 65 
 
 Man is but an image or a thought of God, but 
 God certainly is in His own thoughts. 
 
 Besides the many passages in Paul's writ- 
 ings which directly speak of God in man, 
 what does Jesus say about it? Being asked 
 when the kingdom of God would come, he 
 replied that it came not with observation, but 
 "behold! the kingdom of God is within you." 
 
 Now, if we understand that God fills the 
 same space that our bodily form appears to 
 occupy, that it is He who fills the space and 
 we fill none of it, we soonest get away from 
 the material sense of ourselves and more com- 
 pletely hold ourselves as purely mental (spir- 
 itual), with God as the reality of our being; 
 and His attributes become the thoughts that 
 govern us. In fact, the full realization of 
 this has the most powerful correcting and 
 harmonizing effect of any thought with which 
 you can search yourself. And herein lies the 
 meaning of Christ's words when He said, "He 
 that findeth his life (that is, his physical life) 
 shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for 
 My sake (Christ's) shall find it." This is 
 literally true, and it puts Christ in every inch 
 of space that you occupy. 1 Until you can 
 
 1 The term "space" is, of course, partly figurative, 
 and refers rather to spiritual states. — Ed. 
 
66 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 make this surrender, you are not fully 
 Christ's, nor can you fully experience the 
 fact that God is "All in all;" that is, the only 
 Reality in yourself. 
 
VI 
 
 CAN DISEASE BE ENTIRELY 
 DESTROYED? 
 
 BY EMMA G. WARE 
 
 [Miss Ware was a patient and follower of P. P. 
 Quimby.] 
 
 To answer this question it is necessary to 
 understand what is the origin of disease. 
 Medical authority asserts that it is of matter, 
 and that the germs of various diseases have 
 been found and analyzed. Popular belief ac- 
 knowledges its existence independent of man, 
 and certain localities are believed to be in- 
 fected by it, thereby rendering human life in 
 danger from the poison emanating from it. If 
 the materialistic theory is true, the medical 
 authority is correct, and the popular belief 
 that disease is a creation as much as man is 
 well founded. But the truth we are studying 
 denies this in principle and in fact. Health 
 is like liberty, directly from God, and it can 
 67 
 
68 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 be kept and enjoyed. Man can learn to live 
 in health as truly as he can learn to govern 
 his morals. With a full understanding of the 
 truth man need not be sick and diseased any 
 more than he need be vicious. The universal 
 belief in disease is founded on the universal 
 belief that matter has life, power, and can 
 direct itself. If this is true, it accounts for 
 disease, but it does not destroy it, and so long 
 as this belief in matter lasts just so long will 
 disease be in the world. Therefore, to destroy 
 it we must take away its foundations. 
 
 Can all life and intelligence be taken from 
 matter and yet allow man to remain with his 
 senses and faculties? This is what the truth 
 will do if it is allowed to work. The first 
 point to settle in investigating a phenomenon 
 is the relation between the Creator and the 
 thing created. The Creator is omnipresent, 
 and all his works praise Him. In Him is all 
 life and all love. Matter we can assume is 
 without power and without comprehension of 
 any kind. 1 Like figures, it is without good or 
 evil, but can be used to work out a result. It 
 is not even an agent. It is constantly chang- 
 ing and shifting to work out some plan, the 
 
 1 This was a cardinal principle with Mr. Quimby. 
 -Ed. 
 
CAN DISEASE BE DESTROYED? 69 
 
 design of an intelligence superior to and in- 
 dependent of the matter employed. Man's 
 body is the obstacle that stands between him 
 and progress, virtue and health. The ma- 
 terialists say that it is alive and that it meas- 
 ures out to man his intellectual capacity, and 
 contains a nature or a tendency to vice or 
 disease which he cannot control. This belief 
 arises from attributing intelligence and power 
 to matter, and the results accord with the 
 belief. Man's body is indeed of matter, but 
 it is for him to control and use, and his in- 
 telligence is equal to the task. It may be com- 
 pared to the surface of a river whose waters 
 constantly change, but where the same appear- 
 ance is kept up. 
 
 Man acts in wisdom and in ignorance, and 
 the fruits show which of these is dominant. 
 Good and evil are what he brings forth. Dis- 
 ease certainly is an evil, and the whole foun- 
 dation on which it rests is of ignorance, for 
 Wisdom's works are good. Lift disease from 
 matter into error, and then it can be reached 
 by reason, like any other evil. To do this is 
 to learn Wisdom and to separate the works 
 of God from the inventions of man. We must 
 not put the responsibility of error upon God 
 and look to Him as the author of our suffer- 
 
70 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 ings, for if this is followed we shall never 
 arrive at truth. We must find out what our 
 particular fear is and what error governs us 
 when we are in trouble, and then we can have 
 something to work upon. The foundation of 
 an error must be destroyed, and then the error 
 will cease to exist. 
 
 When the sick ask a question they ask for 
 a substance like food. Their life is in danger, 
 they are in torment and they ask for help. 
 But when those in health ask a question they 
 ask from curiosity and a desire to be enlight- 
 ened. Each requires a different answer. One 
 says, Deliver me from my enemies, and the 
 other says, How can I understand the absurd 
 statements you make? For instance, when 
 you say that there is no death or disease, 
 what do you mean? The answer which the 
 sick requires comes from perfect love which 
 casts out fear. This Love is the open door 
 to Wisdom, which will heal all sickness. 
 When one has it, his selfishness, his preju- 
 dices and his opinions are dissolved, as it 
 were, and he is prepared to hear the voice of 
 Wisdom. Everything evil yields before Wis- 
 dom, and in order to attain it man must give 
 up his errors. Whatever he loves more than 
 Truth stands between himself and Wisdom. 
 
CAN DISEASE BE DESTROYED? 71 
 
 The mental cure as founded and practised by 
 Dr. Quimby claims to be based upon a truth. 
 To learn to apply that truth to the healing of 
 the sick requires devoted and conscientious 
 study. To answer the questions in regard to 
 it is to teach it, and what we hope to do is to 
 make people see that there is something to 
 learn. 
 
 The question whether the mental cure 
 would work, while the person pursued a course 
 of overeating during the time it was going 
 on, would be like asking if a slave can be set 
 free and still serve his master as he did in the 
 days of his bondage. The man who overeats 
 is a slave, and serves a master. Procure his 
 freedom, and he serves himself. He then 
 eats from another motive. The Truth puts 
 no restrictions upon him, nor does it prescribe 
 any rules of living. His fetters are struck off 
 and he is his own master, and he eats from 
 an understanding of truth. It has been said 
 that laws made to prevent crime by punish- 
 ing the criminal are instrumental in increasing 
 crime. So regulations made to prevent man 
 from going into evil do not instruct him, but 
 they ignore his capacity for self-government 
 in regard to health. Health denies disease 
 and Liberty denies slavery. If health is true, 
 
72 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 disease is counterfeit and only passes where 
 it has not been detected. The difference be- 
 tween a slave and a prosperous gentleman is 
 as the difference between an invalid and one 
 who enjoys sound health. The slave is under 
 restrictions and is weak and timid. To lay 
 down any rules which if followed would make 
 the slave as strong and influential as the citi- 
 zen is impossible, and it is equally impossible 
 to give any directions about diet, by which 
 a dyspeptic could feel as comfortable as a 
 man in the most natural state, i.e., a savage. 
 Both are under different laws. One eats to 
 satisfy his craving for food and the other to 
 gratify his taste. To cure the epicure re- 
 quires a healer to understand the wisdom of 
 God cmd to pity man in his follies and errors. 
 The path he takes him is through a wilderness 
 of error to perfect truth. 
 
VII 
 
 THE DISEASE OF 
 APPREHENSIVENESS 
 
 BY EDWARD A. PENNOCK 
 
 [Mr. Pennock is a Quaker minister, also a New 
 Thought writer, and was formerly president of the 
 Metaphysical Club, of Boston. The following essay 
 is reprinted from The Journal of Practical Meta- 
 physics, October, 1896.] 
 
 A large part of mankind is in bondage to 
 that state of mind which is apprehensive of 
 some sort of trouble or misfortune in the 
 future. It is found among all sorts and con- 
 ditions of men; it permeates every station, 
 occupation and profession. The millionaire, 
 with a comfortable bank account and a steady 
 income from stocks and bonds and rentals, 
 is no more likely to be free from it than the 
 humble toiler who lives from hand to mouth. 
 The physician, who should have confidence 
 in his healing art, becomes apprehensive from 
 the very fact of his researches into morbidity, 
 73 
 
74 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 and is fearful of the power of disease and of 
 the omnipresent microbe. Even the clergy- 
 man, who of all men might be supposed to 
 be most peaceful and confident, is apt to limit 
 the goodness and love and omnipotence of the 
 Being whom he worships as his God. 
 
 In general, we are prone to treasure the 
 memories of our past failures and sorrows, 
 which serve as a background on which are 
 developed the distorted pictures of future un- 
 happiness. We do this not only consciously, 
 but unconsciously. Every experience in life 
 leaves an impression in the memory structure. 
 To this subconscious condition we keep add- 
 ing by our chronic pessimism. We dwell 
 upon the accidents and crimes and misfor- 
 tunes of humanity; we look for the evil and 
 neglect the good. Thus is established a pow- 
 erful subconscious force that is ever active 
 in shaping the course of our lives. This, of 
 necessity, will evince itself in some way, and 
 generally progressively, from that miserable 
 state of dread which is constantly crying, 
 
 "What if ," or "Yes, but ," on to a 
 
 physical manifestation of disease that may be 
 learnedly labelled by the physician, but which 
 the metaphysician recognized as the same 
 old "blue devil." 
 
DISEASE OF APPREHENSIVENESS 75 
 
 If we ask the cause of this widespread dis- 
 ease, we shall find its origin in a wrong con- 
 ception of God. The root of it all is in the 
 old idea that God is a jealous, vengeful per- 
 sonality, sitting in judgment over His chil- 
 dren, and liable at any time to send visitations 
 of His wrath upon them, or ready to condemn 
 them to eternal punishment. Coupled with 
 this is the belief that there is a power of evil 
 ever striving to gain possession of men, and 
 permitted by God to bring confusion and 
 misery upon them. 
 
 These two powerful opinions, coming to us 
 from the infancy and ignorance of the race, 
 are totally destructive of peace, harmony and 
 health, and actively productive of the opposite 
 conditions. Although as theological dogmas 
 they are happily fast passing away, their off- 
 spring survives them, and their name is legion. 
 Dread of disease and of "bad luck" is still 
 common. We stand in awe of death because 
 we dread the change and the uncertainty of 
 the hereafter. Even the elements have been 
 endowed with power of evil because God was 
 said to have cursed the world on account of 
 disobedience; one person dreads the winter, 
 another the summer, another the night air or 
 the east wind. If there is not a positive dread, 
 
76 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 there is negative unbelief, and the disease of 
 apprehensiveness is born of both. We fail to 
 connect cause and effect; we do not discrim- 
 inate between reality and unreality ; we live in 
 the things of time and sense. The great "over- 
 sense" of faith is left out of our lives ; we are 
 apprehensive of what fate or fortune may 
 bring. We limit our God and ourselves; we 
 are apprehensive because we do not realize 
 His Allness and our own oneness with Him, 
 which brings to us the possibility of achieve- 
 ment, as well as the responsibility. 
 
 The specific forms in which this disease 
 manifests itself are so numerous and so varied 
 by the modifications of individual experience 
 that we will not attempt to trace them all; 
 but it will be helpful to mention some of the 
 more common. The destructive forces of ap- 
 prehensiveness frequently begin their work in 
 the unborn child. Sometimes the mother's 
 apprehensions, when caused by a specific ex- 
 perience, are marked upon the child in some 
 frightful deformity, either of body or char- 
 acter. Again, if the maternal dread is more 
 general, the manifestation may be less marked 
 upon the child at birth, but the germ-cells have 
 been poisoned .... and the effect will be 
 none the less sure, resulting in stunted and 
 
DISEASE OF APPREHENSIVENESS 77 
 
 distorted unfoldment of the child life. Mod- 
 ern psychology and child-study have revealed 
 the tremendous and terrible inheritance of 
 fear and dread that parents hand down to 
 their children. The dread of night, of being 
 buried alive, of death and of eternal flames, 
 are common among children; and they leave 
 their impress upon the subconsciousness, even 
 after the conscious mind has dropped them. 
 From this source comes the tendency to be 
 easily shocked, to sudden starts from slight 
 causes, and to spontaneous flushing, which is 
 common among children and grown people as 
 well. Many parents follow their children 
 through childhood and youth with anxiety 
 and apprehensiveness that are surely reflected 
 upon the formative mind, and bear fruit after 
 their kind. As we advance in life, instinc- 
 tively or from experience, we form new ap- 
 prehensions. We are afraid of poverty, afraid 
 of accident, afraid of public opinion. 
 
 This apprehensiveness takes all the sunshine 
 out of life, throws a wet blanket over all our 
 activities, sours our whole nature, paralyzes 
 us. Just as surely does it react on the physical 
 part of our being, by depressing the nerve 
 centers and infusing morbid activity into the 
 cells. The result is a torpid liver, a weak 
 
78 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 heart, a sour stomach, nervous prostration and 
 paralysis. These things follow just so surely 
 as two and two make four. Cause and effect, 
 mind and embodiment, are inseparable. There 
 can be no doubt that the only danger from 
 epidemic diseases lies in the dread of them, 
 either conscious or unconscious. The germ 
 theory of disease is being displaced by a more 
 rational view, which regards the germs, not 
 as causes, but as friendly subsequent activities 
 that come in to bring a new form of life to 
 a condition that requires them. It is the 
 morbid and fearful thought that is fatal, not 
 the germs. Even granting their causative 
 power, physiology has shown that the human 
 life-forces, when at their full tide of vigor, 
 are able to cope with and vanquish all lower 
 forms. The gastric juice and the white blood 
 corpuscles are perfect germicides, when not 
 lessened in quantity and deteriorated in quality 
 by anxiety, dread and the depressing emotions. 
 Apprehensiveness is causative in crime as 
 well as physical in disease. Many a man is 
 led to steal because he dreads want or loss 
 of social position. Men commit murder be- 
 cause they are apprehensive of injury from 
 those whom they make their victims. In 
 political economy is not apprehensiveness a 
 
DISEASE OF APPREHENSIVENESS 79 
 
 factor also? Confidence is the life of busi- 
 ness. When it is weakened, credits are with- 
 drawn, money is withheld from circulation, 
 industrial activity ceases; we have "hard 
 times." What is more destructive to con- 
 fidence than apprehensiveness ? Poverty and 
 crime are diseases and apprehensiveness is a 
 cause. 
 
 We have now considered cause and effect; 
 what shall be the remedy ? We know that no 
 remedy can be effectual that does not deal 
 with causes. The cause must be eradicated 
 at once and forever. Many may question the 
 possibility of human nature being free from 
 anxiety and apprehensiveness. Can man be- 
 lieve in an immanent God, an everpresent 
 Help, an All-in-all, and apply this belief to 
 everyday life? This is one-half the problem. 
 Swedenborg says, "Solicitude about futurity, 
 confirmed by act, makes dull and retards the 
 influx of spiritual life, for they who are solic- 
 itous attribute to themselves what is of the 
 Divine Providence, and they who do this 
 oppose the influx of life, and oppose the life 
 of good and truth!' Herein is suggested the 
 other half — a belief in one's self as a mani- 
 festation of that Life, which, with the first, 
 will make the complete circle, the Summum 
 
80 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 Bonum. First, then, a full realization of 
 omnipresent spiritual Reality, an unchanging 
 Goodness, of which the universe is an ex- 
 pression; second, an adjustment of all thought 
 and all activity to this great proposition and 
 to its corollary, that man, made in the image 
 of this Supreme Spirit, is spiritual, and re- 
 ceives constantly an influx of life and good 
 and truth that will lead him on to the fulfil- 
 ment of his highest destiny : this is the mark, 
 and we can answer unequivocally that it is 
 universally attainable. 
 
 These statements of Being are the basis 
 of the highest religious teaching. The most 
 advanced science teaches the same; the uni- 
 versality of Life, the oneness of the Universe, 
 the beneficence of Law, the supremacy of 
 Mind. Thousands of people are solving the 
 problems of life by these propositions, now, 
 day by day. Life must be continuous ; there 
 can only be NOW. What is for one is for 
 all. God is no respecter of persons. 
 
 The removal of the cause of the disease of 
 apprehensiveness is reduced thus to a simple 
 change of mind on our part, to a different 
 way of thinking, to a training of our mental 
 activities away from ignorance and error, 
 along the lines of cosmic truth, to include 
 
DISEASE OF APPREHENSIVENESS 81 
 
 all that is good and beautiful. Our thinking 
 faculties are our own to use as we will. 
 Power is born of desire; we may drop all 
 anxiety and apprehensiveness if we will. As 
 we train ourselves to accept that view of God 
 and His universe which accords with highest 
 reason and science and intuition, there will be 
 no place for apprehensive thoughts. As these 
 disappear, we become more and more open 
 to the influx of all that is true and whole- 
 some and hopeful; — in a word, of all that is 
 Divine. Our fear is turned into courage ; our 
 faith is transmuted into works. If God be for 
 us, who, or what, can be against us? Thus 
 we come to know the Immanent Life of the 
 world, the ever-creative Love. We come to 
 recognize ourselves as manifestations of this 
 Life and Love, through the ideal manifesta- 
 tion that was in Christ. This is life eternal, 
 an ever-progressive, ever-widening and ever- 
 deepening life, from now, henceforth. In it, 
 perfect love casts out fear, and thus the end 
 of religion and of education is attained. 
 
VIII 
 
 "PERFECT LOVE CASTETH OUT 
 FEAR" 
 
 BY WALTER B. ADAMS 
 
 [Mr. Adams was formerly an active member of 
 the Metaphysical Club. This essay is from The 
 Journal of Practical Metaphysics, May, 1897.] 
 
 These words must mean something. But 
 do they have any significance of real value to 
 you and me? If so, wherein do we give evi- 
 dence of it? Do we not find fear the domi- 
 nating sense of humanity? Do we find it 
 modified appreciably as a rule among con- 
 ventionally religious people? "Religion is the 
 life of God in the soul of man," says Lyman 
 Abbott. God and Perfect Love are one. The 
 use of religion is to promote happiness; not 
 alone nor especially in a future life, but 
 now. Indeed religion is necessary to real 
 happiness. How much real happiness is pos- 
 sible to one whose life is dominated by a sense 
 of fear? You must have observed that gen- 
 83 
 
84 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 eral conversation is largely an expression of 
 fear concerning all things. 
 
 The present moment would usually yield 
 contentment enough if it were not wrecked 
 by the fear of the next and successive mo- 
 ments. 
 
 "Some of your hurts you have cured, 
 
 And the sharpest you still have survived; 
 But what torments of grief you endured 
 From evils which never arrived." 
 
 How much Perfect Love does a man have 
 whose mentality is saturated with fear? 
 
 Here is a man nearing the close of an active 
 life. He has been devoutly religious in all 
 external observances. For years he has con- 
 ducted a Bible class for young men, and has 
 been foremost in church work. He has been 
 rigidly orthodox in his views. He has been 
 abundantly successful in business and has 
 shared his income most generously with the 
 less fortunate. What bearing has his religious 
 life had upon his happiness? Observe him. 
 He wears habitually a look of depression and 
 melancholy. Upon inquiry we learn that he 
 suffers from the "disease of apprehensive- 
 ness." Among other things the fear of death 
 haunts him, and altogether he has no peace. 
 
"LOVE CASTETH OUT FEAR" 85 
 
 But he is to find happiness in the next life 
 because of his faithfulness to his religious 
 belief in this ! Is there any sense in this ex- 
 planation? Decidedly not. There is some- 
 thing radically wrong in the conception and 
 practice of his religion. After a life-long 
 religious experience he seems to have nothing 
 helpful to give out except his money. The 
 beauty or utility of religious truth is usually 
 not half told. Its relations to man's moral 
 needs, esthetically considered, and to his hap- 
 piness in a future existence are well empha- 
 sized, but what about the practical value of 
 religious truth to every soul for health, hap- 
 pin ess and prosperity now? 
 
 Experience teaches that many people who 
 profess to believe in spiritual realities act in 
 daily life as if the material existence was the 
 only one. 
 
 A ruling consciousness of Divine Life in 
 man is absolutely essential to his wholeness. 
 He cannot ignore this law of his nature with- 
 out sooner or later giving evidence of it. 
 
 Religion misses its mark if it does not pro- 
 duce in man some sense of at-one-ment with 
 the Divine Life or Perfect Love. Is living 
 in a constant state of fear and great anxiety 
 concerning all things consistent with the pos- 
 
86 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 session of an appreciable measure of Perfect 
 Love? Belief about Perfect Love will not 
 cast out fear; one must live under its spell. 
 "Perfect love casteth out fear" is an ideal 
 statement, and as we absorb it into our 
 thoughts and attempt to make it the rule of 
 life we may grow into some realization of its 
 beauty and freedom. Perfect love and perfect 
 trust are synonymous. Our energies must be 
 directed toward the upbuilding of the inner- 
 man. The abiding well-fare of the outer-man 
 is dependent upon it. 
 
 Every chronic sufferer must realize that 
 fear plays an important part in his undesirable 
 condition. In numberless cases the relief from 
 the tension of fear would undoubtedly mark 
 the beginning of convalescence. Many people 
 through the pernicious habit of fearing almost 
 everything which experience brings, trivial or 
 grave, are thoughtlessly preparing for them- 
 selves a dis-ease of some sort of more or less 
 intensity. People discriminate carefully con- 
 cerning nourishment for the body, but seem 
 perfectly indifferent about the quality of their 
 mental food. If Perfect Love will cast out 
 fear every one needs it. Fear makes one 
 nerveless. Faith is its antidote. The mass 
 of people apparently do little or no real vital 
 
"LOVE CASTETH OUT FEAR" 87 
 
 thinking. They drift along very near the sur- 
 face. If we would manifest the divine attri- 
 butes — love, power, courage — we must think 
 on these things. The germ of Perfect Love 
 is resident in every soul, and to grow into 
 realization of it one must exercise the spiritual 
 faculties. Love is a great power. Direct its 
 rays toward all people with whom you come 
 in contact — in the household, in society, in 
 business — and you will find its reflex action of 
 the first magnitude. See the good in every 
 one. Emphasize it. 
 
 The more we become conscious of the Di- 
 vine Love in us the more we shall manifest 
 courage and poise and real happiness. Fill 
 the mind with high ideals and a thousand 
 fears die for want of attention. 
 
IX 
 A PAGE FROM MY INNER LIFE 
 
 BY FRED VINCENT FULLER 
 
 I had nothing in the beginning of my spir- 
 itual awakening to combat except possibly 
 subconsciously the narrow beliefs of Ortho- 
 doxy, for I never accepted its handed-down 
 man-made traditions of less favored ages, and 
 yet I found latent in myself many of the grim 
 New England teachings of repression, fear- 
 Godness and stern-visaged duty, while at the 
 same time I felt somewhat in regard to min- 
 isters as did Emerson : "That the relations of 
 the soul to the Divine Spirit are so pure that 
 it is profane to interpose helps." 
 
 Some two years ago 1 I read Miss Whit- 
 ing's World Beautiful and the picture there- 
 in drawn of the joyous, bold, care and worry- 
 free life which one might come into fasci- 
 nated me, and I often wondered almost dully 
 
 1 The above was written in 1896. Reprinted from 
 The Journal of Practical Metaphysics. 
 89 
 
90 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 whence could come the ladder by means of 
 which I might be lifted to this ecstatic plane 
 where one thrilled at all times with abound- 
 ing zeal, exuberance, peace and unlimited 
 power of accomplishment. For nearly ten 
 consecutive years I had in cold weather 
 months, on account of a (supposed) lack of 
 vitality been inwardly depressed, morbid, blue, 
 and introspective, and my mental condition at 
 these periods was as distinct from brighter 
 portions of my life as was Dr. Jekyll from 
 Mr. Hyde. I was troubled, too, while intel- 
 lectually free to roam the universe, with a 
 vague unrest, a deep inward irritating discon- 
 tent, and often thought half enviously of the 
 perfect rest and content believers in Catholi- 
 cism seem to have from their absolute accept- 
 ance of their faith. One blessed day Miss 
 Whiting wrote these words in one of her se- 
 rial articles: "It is not just to consider the 
 subject (suggestion) without referring to the 
 best book ever written upon it, one that is an 
 efficient hand-book of the inner life, — Mr. 
 Henry Wood's Ideal Suggestion. In this a 
 number of years ago Mr. Wood formulated 
 the law and presented it in the most clear, 
 simple, and impressive way." 
 
 While somewhat familiar with spiritual and 
 
PAGE FROM MY INNER LIFE 91 
 
 progressive literature, most of it had seemed 
 vague and speculative to me and wholly lack- 
 ing in method, due to the fact that my pro- 
 fession as well as my nature contributed to 
 give me methodical, systematic ways of view- 
 ing and acquiring things. I got Ideal Sug- 
 gestion and the first night I read through 
 acceptably, on account of my knowledge of 
 hypnotism and kindred subjects, the theory 
 presented in its first hundred pages. The sec- 
 ond night I took my first meditation and Sug- 
 gestion, "GOD IS HERE," and from that 
 day to this — one year — I have never had a 
 moment's depression, and as I went on learn- 
 ing, step by step, to rest my thought upon the 
 great normal Reality, peace flowed like a river 
 through my mind, and joy came more and 
 more into my possession: 
 
 "And all the jarring notes of life 
 
 Seemed blended in a Psalm, 
 And all the angles of its strife 
 Slow rounding into calm/' 
 
 The first few suggestions took such hold 
 upon me that while riding in a street car I 
 would mentally see them emblazoned about 
 me in a more positive way even than the ad- 
 vertisements. So peaceful, patient, hopeful 
 
92 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 did I become, even in the midst of business 
 complications and unusual happenings, that I 
 several times thought I must be in a fools' 
 paradise, and that my state was too good and 
 suddenly acquired to be real, that such ex- 
 hilaration could not last but would drop me 
 with a thud from cloudland earthward after 
 the first frenzy wore off. At such times I 
 would take a mental account of stock and al- 
 ways had to decide that even if I failed to 
 permanently gain and hold all the spiritual 
 graces promised, I could then and there see 
 I was morally more firm and bold, intellect- 
 ually more keen and originative, while physi- 
 cally I was in perfect condition. 
 
 On one occasion, talking of doubt, I asked 
 Mr. Wood if he himself ever doubted the 
 foundation principles and brilliant hopes held 
 out in his book, and he informed me that the 
 doctrine therein expressed had been so widely 
 demonstrated, as proven by his great mass of 
 correspondence with people in every part of 
 the country, that no shadow of unbelief could 
 possibly possess him. From among his many 
 letters he loaned me nearly half a hundred 
 glorious, enthusiastic endorsements, and as I 
 read those frank, spontaneous, stimulating 
 testimonies from people who had discovered 
 
PAGE FROM MY INNER LIFE 93 
 
 that Heaven is a condition of subjective har- 
 mony and knowledge of Truth, and not a far- 
 off country, my doubt was victoriously swal- 
 lowed and assimilated into new zeal and fer- 
 vor, much as Emerson advises one to "Work 
 your passion up into poetry." Ideal Sugges- 
 tion became my daily food, and when jour- 
 neying about had its place in my satchel, and 
 so traveled in a few months six thousand 
 miles with me, and was more cheering than 
 a roomful of folks. Other books doubtless 
 do and will touch and fit other temperaments 
 as this one did mine, for Truth is never an 
 exclusive thing, bottled up in one mind only, 
 while the key-word for advancement is daily 
 persistence. 
 
 Progress in these lines being a growth and 
 uneven and inappreciable from day to day, and 
 even sometimes from month to month, I was 
 for a long time puzzled to see why my mental 
 inharmony ceased from the day I first began 
 my new exercises, but recently in reading Mr. 
 Dresser's The Power of Silence I came across 
 this sentence, "His harmful states of mind 
 will cease to trouble him if he refuse them the 
 attention which is their life," and the mystery 
 was solved. 
 
 A thing exists for us and influences us only 
 
94 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 when it comes to or holds our attention, and 
 we can think absorbingly of but one thing at 
 a time. If you have never been to Australia 
 and it never comes to your attention, then so 
 far as exerting any influence on your life and 
 thought goes, it does not exist for you. If a 
 wild animal escapes from a menagerie and 
 roams through city streets paralyzing all who 
 see him with fear, and yet your own attention 
 does not get directed toward him, his presence 
 near you does not terrify because no thought 
 of him has entered your mind, and so he is 
 mentally harmless to you. Your neighbor may 
 be bowed down with secret, crushing despair, 
 as real and distressing to him as a broken 
 limb, but as your attention is not called to it, 
 but is filled with your own concerns, it is un- 
 known to you. Now the grand thoughts pre- 
 sented in Ideal Suggestion were of intense in- 
 terest to me and immediately they were 
 presented to my attention they completely 
 filled, occupied, and absorbed it so that when 
 my mind was freed from ordinary duties, 
 these elevating new thoughts flowed into it 
 spontaneously and filled it, utterly excluding 
 pessimistic and morbid thought. In this nat- 
 ural, normal way, then, doubt and worry 
 dropped out of my life almost instantly, be- 
 
PAGE FROM MY INNER LIFE 95 
 
 cause ideal thoughts automatically sprang in 
 when allowed to, and their opposites, being dis- 
 placed from consciousness, died. In the same 
 way sin, fear, and ignorance are displaced by 
 the sunlight of bright thinking and* are gone 
 forever, and to hold in mind this simple prin- 
 ciple of "No attention, no existence" is a most 
 helpful key to aid in controlling phases of 
 thinking. 
 
 It might be argued that any other hobby 
 which absorbed one's entire interest would 
 make him happy in its pursuit, and this is 
 partly so, but the deeper, inner growth of 
 subconscious harmony and education which 
 is the result aimed at would be lacking, if or- 
 dinary objective pursuits were substituted for 
 spiritual thoughts and truths which concern 
 our being's most sacred depths. 
 
 To one who is harmonious and touched 
 with the light, the world is continually radi- 
 ant, and a walk with nature is a sweet com- 
 munion, every person, dog, tree, rock, is redo- 
 lent with relatedness and have joyful speech 
 with us through the All which glistens in 
 them. God is no longer a word of three let- 
 ters to him, but a vital, warming, satisfying 
 Energy of which he is a part, and which whis- 
 pers lowly to him in every breeze saying: 
 
96 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 "Men are tubes through which the breath of 
 God doth blow a momentary music." He is 
 "Ever in the presence of and always close to 
 Love," and he feels as he views the setting 
 sun, the crystal sky, the stretch of landscape, 
 a sense of ideal ownership in it even to the 
 point of exclaiming with Monte Cristo, "The 
 world is mine." 
 
 His life moving parallel with Divine Law 
 becomes simple, luminous, sweet, and he is 
 startled at the favoring and added things 
 which manifest in his environment, for spir- 
 itual harmony, through the law of attraction 
 and correspondence, produces an easy, per- 
 fect condition of harmony in all he has to do 
 with, and this fills him to the brim with soft 
 thankfulness and wet-eyed appreciation. Per- 
 sons, circumstances, things, come profusely in 
 his way and he no longer strives or competes, 
 but is lovingly led or beckoned on by the pri- 
 mal power of the universe, that part of God 
 within himself. All things show new lustre, 
 and speak lovingly to him with new tongues, 
 and he finds that : 
 
 "Earth's crammed with Heaven, 
 And every common bush afire with God." 
 
X 
 
 THE IDEAL HEALER 
 
 BY ELLEN M. DYER 
 
 [Miss Dyer was for many years the leading meta- 
 physical healer and teacher in Philadelphia.] 
 
 There are healers and healers in the New 
 Thought today, and it is inevitable that the 
 general public and those in special need should 
 show a growing tendency to move carefully, 
 discriminate and classify as experience brings 
 wisdom. 
 
 A few years ago it was stated with unction 
 by the eager promulgators of the movement 
 that the consideration of personality must not 
 enter into the question of who should heal, or 
 to which of several available practitioners the 
 one desiring help should apply. But after it 
 had also been accepted, as a fact not to be 
 questioned, that twelve lessons were the all- 
 necessary equipment of the one who was to 
 assume to guide living souls from bondage to 
 freedom, the fruit began to give token of the 
 97 
 
98 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 manner of tree that produced it, and the first 
 statement began to call for deeper soundings 
 as to its basis in practical truth. 
 
 Some one has said that personality is "the 
 divine thing in the world." It is, indeed, when 
 regenerated and emptied of human obstruc- 
 tion, the channel of divine and impersonal 
 truth to man. But the all-important point is 
 that it be thus cleared and purified ; for every 
 feature and force therein is called upon to 
 render service in this highest of earthly min- 
 istry. 
 
 What constitutes the ideal and practical 
 healer? He has been a deep student both in 
 heart and head, but now he is more — he has 
 passed beyond study, so far as the work now 
 put into his hands is concerned. Ever look- 
 ing with head and heart toward experience 
 and revelation, in his march onward, he is, 
 nevertheless, in relation to the patient at his 
 side, a spontaneous, living force, ever seeing 
 more than he presents, and realizing more 
 than he affirms. Saturated with love unspeak- 
 able, he radiates therefrom; but the radiation 
 is yet less than the abundant possession. The 
 student is lost sight of in the disciple, the dis- 
 ciple is merged in the seer and lover. 
 
 He gives not only his faith, his word, his 
 
THE IDEAL HEALER 99 
 
 love, but himself; and the measure of good 
 received, however great, holds a still larger 
 value as suggestion of the possibilities that are 
 unfathomable. The patient is helped, healed, 
 and infinitely more — his feet are put into the 
 path that leads to self-help. Through the 
 healer's recognition his own intuitions are 
 aroused, and he is henceforth his own physi- 
 cian. The true and deepest healing, there- 
 fore, lies in the educative quality that it pos- 
 sesses rather than in the temporary cure. 
 
 No trick of method or intellectual acuteness 
 makes the healer ; it is his own intrinsic indi- 
 viduality, sincerely and unselfishly put forth. 
 Nor is excess of phenomena needed to mark 
 his steady progress from year to year; how- 
 ever, as flashlights of experience, these may 
 here and there give glimpses of the back- 
 ground of power drawn upon. Nor is the 
 healing a matter of occasional and spasmodic 
 effort, but a largely unconscious and continu- 
 ous progression in realization — an undeviat- 
 ing tendency in the direction of that habitual 
 right thinking and loving that are to usher in 
 the divine humanity. Hence it is never a task 
 to be performed, but the impulsion of a great 
 and inexhaustible love, that, having no burden 
 of self to bear, knows no weariness of self. 
 
100 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT"' 
 
 Not an exclusive or personal love is this deep 
 impulse, but a single pulse-beat from the 
 Mother-Heart of God, conscious that it beats 
 only in responsive unison with the All, elimi- 
 nating all suggestion of personal desire, eager- 
 ness or comparison. 
 
 In Goldsmith's Village Preacher of many 
 years ago we read the prophecy of the Ideal 
 Healer of today: 
 
 "Unskilful he to fawn, or seek for power, 
 By doctrines fashioned to the varying hour; 
 For other aims his heart had learned to prize, 
 More bent to raise the wretched than to rise." 
 
 Yet to the healer's view there are no 
 wretched ; he has already risen to the Mount 
 of Beatitudes, where he sees that the greatest 
 need is but the attractive point for the great- 
 est blessedness. 
 
 "And as a bird each fond endearment tries, 
 To tempt its new-fledged offspring to the skies, 
 He tried each art, reproved each dull delay, 
 Allured to brighter fields, and led the way." 
 
 Independent of the creed of stereotyped 
 statements, the dogma of established methods, 
 his one fixed point is his own interior touch 
 with his divinity, whence he floods his patient 
 
THE IDEAL HEALER 101 
 
 with the overflow of his latest and purest rev- 
 elation of the moment. His patient is to him, 
 for the time, the one only soul to be lifted up 
 and illumined, his present and best opportu- 
 nity for giving forth the healing power that 
 is filling him. So does he attain to the "Great 
 Ideal," and the world in its great need draws 
 near to him because he has drawn near to God. 
 Faith is a necessity of life. Life is impos- 
 sible without it. And the very first thing we 
 do is to believe. "Thought may shake or 
 strengthen faith: it cannot produce it. Is its 
 origin in the will ? No ; good-will may favor 
 it, ill-will may hinder it, but no one believes 
 by will, and faith is not a duty — it is an in- 
 stinct, for it precedes all outward instruction." 
 As Count Tolstoi says: "If a man lives, he 
 believes in something. If he did not believe 
 that there is something to live for, he would 
 not live. If he does not see and understand 
 the unreality of the finite, he believes in the 
 finite. If he sees that unreality, he must be- 
 lieve in the infinite. Without faith there is no 
 life." 
 
XI 
 
 HEALING SUGGESTIONS 
 (A Letter to a Patient) 
 
 BY EDWARD A. PENNOCK 
 
 Your continued anxiety about physical trou- 
 bles only serves to intensify and increase them. 
 Can you not trust yourself fully to the great 
 Love and Power which makes itself felt 
 through all the universe in perfect order and 
 harmony? Try to give yourself over as to 
 results completely to God and the silent-spok- 
 en words of Truth. Your present attitude is 
 not different from that of many another. The 
 race has trusted so long in material things 
 that it is willing to put faith in a pill or a po- 
 tion to help God along in His work. Does not 
 this seem ridiculous? The power that makes 
 for wholeness is resident within ourselves, and 
 we can help or hinder according to the use we 
 make of our thought- forces You need to 
 become totally indifferent to results, by culti- 
 vating the belief that if you keep poised and 
 103 
 
104 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 comfortable and joyful within, results will 
 take care of themselves. Cultivate constantly 
 the attitude of health, courage and prosperity. 
 These are yours if you will but claim them. 
 Assert constantly your mastery over your 
 thoughts, your body and your environment. 
 Believe and assert that nothing can stop your 
 progress, because Divine Power is working 
 through you for your unfoldment. When the 
 seeming is opposed to this, do not be discour- 
 aged, but accept it as a proving time for which 
 you will be the stronger after you have over- 
 come. All things are promised to him that 
 overcometh. Do not fight and struggle, but 
 simply reach out in the confident assumption 
 that all things are yours. Keep the ideal Self 
 constantly in mind — that Self which is spirit 
 and which is master over the body and over 
 environment. 
 
 Cultivate the quiet attitude of universal love. 
 This is the solvent which removes all difficul- 
 ties, all fears, all apparently hostile conditions. 
 Drummond's Greatest Thing in the World con- 
 tains some of the highest lessons we need to 
 learn. I would make love even more universal 
 and comprehensive than he does, by making it 
 include every thing — every state, condition and 
 environment. They are all parts of the uni- 
 
HEALING SUGGESTIONS 105 
 
 versal plan which is being worked out by Love, 
 through Love and in Love. It is only by tak- 
 ing such an attitude as this that we can remove 
 all the friction from life and have that perfect 
 harmony which is the kingdom of heaven. If 
 you love everything, this will of course include 
 your food. It is a symbol of love and life. 
 Take it always in this way, and do it for love's 
 sake. Dieting can never cure dyspepsia, for 
 the cause of the disease is not in food of any 
 description, but very often in the fear of food. 
 I have no desire to prescribe what you shall or 
 shall not eat, but I do want you to attain that 
 freedom wherein you may eat whatever you 
 wish. You should have that perfect unconcern 
 about the whole matter which will enable you 
 to sit down to any table and eat in moderation 
 whatever your taste calls for. You have the 
 right to include in your diet anything, that may 
 properly be called food, which you like. We 
 may admit that some foods contain chemically 
 more of nutrition than others. But in reality 
 the chief nourishment comes from the thought 
 and spirit with which the food is taken. Any 
 food taken with doubt, fear or disrelish, will 
 fail to nourish ; and almost anything in the lists 
 of food will nourish, if the natural taste is fol- 
 lowed and the right mental conditions are ob- 
 
106 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 served. Our appetites should be strictly heed- 
 ed as to quantity and kind. As we come into 
 the consciousness that we are spirit, immortal, 
 not subject to disease or weakness, all these 
 matters of taste and appetite become adjusted 
 to this great fact, and it will work out that we 
 will choose naturally those things which will 
 best minister to the ideal we hold in mind, a 
 body that is the perfect instrument of the im- 
 mortal self. As long as you admit that some 
 kinds of food have the power to hurt you, 
 you are still believing in the power of evil, 
 and this is a belief that ought to be eradicated. 
 We must firmly hold to the belief that good 
 is the only power, the only reality. Of course, 
 if you choose you can limit yourself to certain 
 kinds of food and still be happy ; but you will 
 not thus attain the high degree of health, hap- 
 piness and mastery which will come from the 
 belief in and demonstration of the principle 
 that you are spirit, and that spirit is supreme 
 over all material conditions. This is the ideal 
 condition and if you hold to it, I believe that 
 your fears will be gradually dissipated, and 
 you will feel free to trust your own desires. 
 Until you prove by your actions that you have 
 laid aside this anxiety about food which is all 
 the time accentuating your condition, you will 
 
HEALING SUGGESTIONS 107 
 
 not manifest the perfect health which is your 
 birthright. 
 
 Yes, I think your experiences have been 
 necessary to you as a schoolmaster, and they 
 have all been working beneficently to bring 
 you to a knowledge of your true self. When 
 one comes to that full knowledge and con- 
 sciousness, then the soul is completely domi- 
 nant. But there are varying degrees of con- 
 sciousness and dominance, and you may 
 attain what you would now call perfect health 
 long before you attain all knowledge. The 
 soul awakens gradually to its possibilities of 
 spiritual dominion and to power before un- 
 dreamed of. All your improvement must 
 come through a changed attitude of mind, and 
 the attitude which you need to cultivate to- 
 ward your physical disease is that it is not an 
 evil in itself which is to be removed for its 
 own sake. On the other hand, you should 
 know that it is the greatest possible blessing 
 to you, in that it shows you that there is a 
 mental and spiritual inharmony within which 
 needs to be remedied. Cultivate indifference 
 as to the physical expression, and ignore the 
 claims of pain as much as possible, and give 
 your thought to the holding of the spiritually 
 
108 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 perfect ideal within, to the consciousness that 
 you are a regnant soul, receiving a constant 
 influx of love, wisdom and power from on 
 high. This will lead to just the results that 
 you need and desire. It will lead to a con- 
 sciousness of your supreme superiority over 
 all external conditions. It will lead you to 
 realize that the cause of all your inharmony 
 and unhappiness is in yourself, and not in ex- 
 ternal things. 
 
XII 
 THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 
 
 BY HORATIO W. DRESSER 
 
 [From an address at the Green Acre Conferences, 
 Eliot, Maine. Reprinted from Unity, Kansas City, 
 Mo., November, 1912.] 
 
 Few scenes in the life of Jesus are more 
 deeply impressive than the one in which the 
 Master is given opportunity to defend him- 
 self, but instead holds his peace, calmly and 
 courageously meeting the fate which his ene- 
 mies were preparing for him. There had been 
 occasions on which he had refrained from vis- 
 iting certain towns because of their unbelief, 
 and he had gone apart even from his disciples 
 that he might pray in solitude and prepare for 
 the greater events to come. On occasion, too, 
 his ministry among the people implied a for- 
 ward look with a purpose other than that of 
 the acceptance of events as they came. But 
 on this occasion, although he had declared 
 that he could summon greater powers to his 
 109 
 
110 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 aid, he meets his adversaries with few words 
 and without attempting to secure his freedom. 
 Consistently with this acceptance of civil au- 
 thority, he goes forward to meet his death on 
 the cross, and to the last moment is faithful 
 to the principles which as teacher he had enun- 
 ciated. Surely there never was a more splen- 
 did example of constancy and courage. 
 
 The principle implied in this fidelity to an 
 ideal lies at the heart of the Sermon on the 
 Mount and of the Master's teaching as a 
 whole. It has often been misinterpreted alike 
 by so-called Christians and by critics outside 
 the faith. The time is opportune for fresh 
 consideration of it, in order that we may gain 
 clearer insight into the essence of Christianity. 
 
 Without regard to the ultimate nature of 
 Christ, one may consider the discourses and 
 works by which Jesus sought to establish the 
 kingdom of the Spirit. These principles are 
 good in their own right as parts of an ethical 
 system, and they hold whether or not we deem 
 the Master an example whom all can follow. 
 The important consideration is that we regard 
 these teachings in a spirit which gives the clue 
 to the life of Jesus, and indicates possibilities 
 that lie open to the devotee of the highest 
 moral ideals. Without this spirit we are like- 
 
SERMON ON THE MOUNT 111 
 
 ly to disregard his teachings as impractical, 
 assailing them because of their departure from 
 the Mosaic law. Clothed by this spirit we 
 may make our way where many readers of 
 the gospel have never trod. 
 
 We open the pages of the gospel narrative 
 and find "the man of peace" moving among 
 the spiritually hungry and assuring them that 
 the kingdom is "at hand." Whatever this 
 kingdom may appear to mean from the point 
 of view of various Messianic expectations, it 
 signifies that the Master comes in an attitude 
 of authority born of experience and convic- 
 tion, calling on men to forego their allegiance 
 to external things and customs, and look to 
 the inmost world of instincts, habits, motives 
 and love. Without regard to interpretations 
 of the atonement, and independently of any 
 view concerning the resurrection, one may in- 
 sist that Jesus summons each man to look to 
 himself, change his attitude, purify his heart, 
 so that he may live a genuinely righteous life. 
 It is in this sense, as an appeal to the moral 
 heart or will, that I ask the reader to regard 
 the discourse anew as if it were a fresh utter- 
 ance in modern psychological terms. 
 
 The Sermon on the Mount may not have 
 been spoken in precisely the connected form 
 
112 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 in which we have it in one of the gospels, not 
 the earliest, and imperfections may have 
 marred the text. However that may be, we 
 may estimate it as representative of the life 
 and teaching of Jesus as a whole, taking care 
 not to single out passages for approval or dis- 
 approval to the exclusion of the rest. It 
 comes fresh from the lips of the Master, who 
 lived by it and proved it by his works. To 
 read it with open eye one needs to attain an 
 interior vision of the purity of the ideal in- 
 culcated, a vision out of the unity of which 
 the various precepts may be seen to spring. 
 
 Taking Jesus at his word, let us say that 
 his mission was to bring the life of the Spirit 
 to men, that they might know and live that 
 life in fullness. First and last he attributed 
 all power and wisdom to God, humbly main- 
 taining that he was obedient to the Father's 
 will. Hence he made no claim in behalf of 
 his mere self, not even from the point of view 
 of goodness, but spoke ever of the central 
 source from which all men might receive 
 power according to their needs. He invited 
 men to come to him as giver of peace, as the 
 way, the truth, and the life, but always as to 
 the center within all men where the Christ is 
 revealed, not as if he wished men to deem him, 
 
SERMON ON THE MOUNT 113 
 
 the son of man, the same as God. The Father, 
 invisible in the heavens, yet revealed to each 
 man in the holy places of the heart, is ever 
 his object of appeal. There is indeed a way 
 which leads to the secret place of the soul, and 
 the Master fully believes that he it is who 
 makes that way known. But the essential is 
 the goal — the infinitely tender and loving 
 Father whose care is over all His works, and 
 the kingdom of righteousness which those en- 
 ter who acknowledge the source of all good- 
 ness and efficiency. In vain shall we try to 
 interpret the darker passages of the Sermon 
 on the Mount unless we approach them in the 
 light of this interior illumination. 
 
 Turning to the great discourse with this 
 clue in mind, we find it not only a guide to 
 the inmost life, but see that it is in this inti- 
 mately interior sense that the law of love 
 comes "not to destroy but to fulfUl." Jesus 
 begins by praising those who have been 
 touched by the life of the Spirit and are there- 
 fore merciful, humble, pure in heart, hun- 
 gering and thirsting after righteousness, seek- 
 ing to establish peace among their fellows, 
 faithful even under accusation and persecu- 
 tion. When he promises recompense it is of 
 the interior sort. If we are about to fulfill 
 
114 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 a vow, if we would reform our brothers, he 
 bids us remember that we should first adjust 
 whatever is not right in our spiritual attitude, 
 that we may clearly see how to take the lead. 
 So in regard to sin — it is the inmost con- 
 sciousness that is of moment; the fact of sin 
 is driven home with the pronouncement that 
 even to lust in thought is to break the law. 
 It follows that purity begins within, and in- 
 volves cleanness of heart, thought and action. 
 Hence great emphasis is put on the honesty 
 or sincerity of the one whose righteousness 
 far exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees. 
 Prayer, too, is genuine only in the light of 
 openness and purity of heart; it begins with 
 the soul's inmost receptivity and is rather an 
 act of adjustment than of petition, since our 
 wants are already known by the Father. All 
 our judgments or condemnatory utterances 
 emanate from within, and inevitably bring 
 their like upon us. The possibility of right- 
 eous judgment is held up as a standard for 
 the attainment of those who exercise their 
 moral powers to the full. In so far as an 
 external rule may be required, it is given in 
 the declaration that men may be estimated in 
 accordance with the fruits of their conduct, 
 and there are warnings for those who might 
 
SERMON ON THE MOUNT 115 
 
 perchance mistake the false for the true 
 Christ. But the center of interest and of con- 
 duct is still the realm of motives. In place 
 of the anxiety and distrust which so often 
 characterize the inner life, one should first 
 and last substitute love and longing for the 
 kingdom, the pursuit of God and the life of 
 righteousness, from which shall follow what 
 is requisite for the external life. 
 
 The inner emphasis is also seen in the 
 counsel to seek treasures that are eternal in 
 the heavens, in contrast with things that 
 perish. The difference turns on the fact that 
 no man can fully give his consciousness to 
 two objects at the same time, and the fact 
 that to love the one is to despise the other. 
 Hence concentration, the single eye, is abso- 
 lutely requisite. Whatever our pretensions, 
 it is where the heart is that shows what really 
 rules. Hence the special meaning attached 
 to all that is said about purity of heart, con- 
 stancy in the pursuit of the kingdom of right- 
 eousness, even in the face of practical needs 
 that apparently call for anxious consideration. 
 Sufficient unto the day is its own evil or 
 trouble, that is, the problem of the hour. To 
 believe in all sincerity in the ethics of the 
 heart is to give entire allegiance to the task, 
 
116 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 the opportunity for service just now at hand. 
 Our part is to concentrate on the activities 
 that are within our power, trusting the results 
 as in the keeping of the moral spirit, the 
 providence of God. 
 
 One cannot give to the genuinely worthy, 
 instead of casting pearls before swine, with- 
 out first raising the question, Who is worthy? 
 This leads to an estimate of the springs of 
 moral action. Hence we are again compelled 
 to begin with ourselves. Since we are bidden 
 to act as we would be done by, we are con- 
 strained to consider what we would really 
 wish done unto us. We cannot seriously 
 reflect upon this question unless we possess a 
 moral ideal. But to be moral is to know the 
 self, know what is worthy of realization. The 
 self is not an isolated entity, but is intimately 
 related to all men. Thus the golden rule im- 
 plies the law of service or love. Or, again, 
 if assured that by asking we shall receive 
 answer, if by seeking we shall find, everything 
 will depend upon what we ask for and seek 
 in accordance with our ideal. Rightly to ask, 
 one must obviously possess a moral standard. 
 But this again implies the law of prayer al- 
 ready inculcated, since the soul's sincerest need 
 has been provided for. Thus each phase of 
 
SERMON ON THE MOUNT 117 
 
 the principle leads back to its center in the 
 heart or attitude of the soul. 
 
 The Father's all- foreseeing care pertains 
 first to the inner life, the spiritual essentials, 
 then to the outer things that are needed or 
 are in correspondence. Spiritual joy centers 
 above all about the results of fidelity and 
 righteousness, including the knowledge of the 
 fruits that follow when one is persecuted or 
 opposed. These results, hard to bear as they 
 may be, are sure signs along the highway of 
 the moral life. Straight and narrow indeed 
 is that way, yet it is the one that leadeth unto 
 life. To let the inner light shine, to practice 
 the word, lead the life — this is the one essen- 
 tial. The life shows whether or no we have 
 found the kingdom. To seek it in absolute 
 seriousness is to aspire to be perfect, even as 
 the Father in heaven is perfect. 
 
 Now all this strikes to the center and in- 
 volves sharp distinctions, calling to account 
 those who merely obey the letter of the law, 
 exposing hypocrisy, doing away with all com- 
 promise. To let one's speech be "Yea, yea; 
 nay, nay," discarding all else as evil, implies 
 a far keener type of self-examination and 
 purification than even the Jews with all their 
 righteousness were accustomed to employ. It 
 
118 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 were easy to love one's neighbor, and despise 
 one's enemy. But now comes the admonition 
 to love one's enemies and even pray for them. 
 How can this be unless one lift the righteous 
 life to a higher level by beginning at the in- 
 most center? The force of this new command 
 will come out clearly if we put it in contrast 
 with the ordinary situation in human life. 
 
 What do we usually do when we encounter 
 the enmity and opposition of our fellows, 
 when people condemn us? If so far civilized 
 as to refrain from taking arms and returning 
 blow for blow, we rise in self-defense and in 
 self -justification, looking after our rights, and 
 making sure that our enemy shall not steal in 
 unawares. Our courts, our civil customs and 
 our affairs in general are founded on the sup- 
 position that everything shall receive its equiv- 
 alent. We are so accustomed to this basis 
 that we unthinkingly assume it to be the only 
 law, putting aside unheard any other utter- 
 ance on the subject. Likewise in our own 
 selfhood we ordinarily meet whatever is hos- 
 tile by a show of force, and our moral ideals 
 largely center about the belief that fire can 
 drive out fire. Immersed in the conflict of 
 instincts, impulses, habits, opinions and emo- 
 tions, we do not know what else to do. Hence 
 
SERMON ON THE MOUNT 119 
 
 we move forward on the same level, ever 
 looking for light there, hoping to conquer 
 there. 
 
 But a day dawns when we realize that on 
 the lower level there never would be an end. 
 The self would never be satisfied, though the 
 whole world should sit at its feet in abject 
 apology. This is seen in the case of an argu- 
 ment where each partner to the discussion 
 seeks to come out ahead, but where no one is 
 convinced of anything. Now, it requires cour- 
 age to "agree with thine adversary quickly, 
 while thou art with him in the way," but to 
 be willing to make the venture means that 
 one is ready to press forward. To remain on 
 the lower level is to be sure of one result, 
 namely, suffering or reward in kind ; the ques- 
 tion is whether by adopting the method of 
 love and peace we shall receive the higher 
 reward. Jesus assures us that we will, and 
 that the Father's care is especially concerned 
 with the provisions required on this level. 
 
 It is often said that the command to refrain 
 from resisting evil is an impracticable precept 
 that might have value in an ideal world, but 
 has no meaning in the present social order; 
 that Christians do not believe it and do not 
 undertake to live by it. Tried in the light of 
 
120 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 the foregoing exposition let us see if we can 
 understand this precept. The Sermon on the 
 Mount centers, we have seen, about the world 
 of motives, promptings, and the tendencies 
 within man which impede the righteous life. 
 We are justified, then, in regarding this pre- 
 cept from the inmost point of view. What 
 would it be to restrain ourselves when we are 
 tempted to combat evil? What is non-resist- 
 ance psychologically? 
 
 In the first place, if we examine our con- 
 sciousness, we discover that it is the nature 
 of mental life always to be in pursuit, to be 
 striving to attain an end. That is, volitional 
 activity is central, and pure passivity is im- 
 possible. To hold yourself still you must con- 
 centrate, and concentration means focusing 
 of power. To check an emotion such as fear, 
 an impulse such as the tendency to strike, or 
 even a thought of the most quiet type, you 
 must exert activity. Far more power is often 
 required to refrain from giving blow for blow, 
 with tongue or pen, than would be required to 
 express the impulse. Hence non-resistance on 
 the lower level means inhibition or resistance 
 from the higher, a checking of the prompting 
 by an act of will adequate to overcome it. 
 This victory should not be described in nega- 
 
SERMON ON THE MOUNT 121 
 
 tive but in positive terms. The love that hin- 
 ders the hate, the spirit of forgiveness that 
 overcomes the sentiment of anger or jealousy, 
 must be greater in power than its adversary. 
 For psychology shows us that the strongest 
 motive prevails. The strongest motive is not 
 necessarily the most vigorous impulse, but may 
 be the moral incentive which overcomes the 
 consciousness of that which is by the realiza- 
 tion of that which ought to be. Nor does the 
 strongest motive necessarily express itself in 
 directly observable external conduct. Indeed, 
 when a man is most quiet externally, and ap- 
 parently least responsive, he may be most un- 
 der interior restraint. The greatest power psy- 
 chologically resides in the idea or object of 
 consciousness which has power to inhibit all 
 other ideas or incentives just then active in 
 the field of consciousness, and master that field 
 by substituting itself. The calmest state, that 
 is, calmest at the center, is the one which 
 possesses the greatest power and may lead to 
 the most far-reaching consequences. What is 
 true psychologically is also true spiritually. 
 The devotee of the inner ideal looks forward 
 to the time when his power of inhibition will 
 be such that love shall in every instance be 
 triumphant, when there shall be control or 
 
122 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 poise enough to insure perfect coincidence be- 
 tween the divinest prompting and the human 
 will. How can the moral ideal be fully real- 
 ized in any other way? 
 
 To check the impulse to return blow for 
 blow means that the energy immanent in the 
 impulse is transformed, or expressed in an- 
 other way interiorly. If instead of contend- 
 ing with the evil man in his own terms, I 
 pause that I may treat him as my brother, 
 really feeling love for him — not merely claim- 
 ing that I love him — I do not by any means 
 assume a passive attitude, allowing him to do 
 what he will; instead I give expression to a 
 greater power. Whether or not I turn the 
 other cheek, or give my cloak also, is a sec- 
 ondary matter, and I am not undertaking to 
 imitate the letter of the law. The principle 
 in question is interior and spiritual, hence 
 everything depends upon what I do in spirit, 
 whether or not I fall in line outwardly and 
 walk with him two miles when he would go 
 but one. I cannot help resisting in some fash- 
 ion, but am bidden not to condemn him as a 
 soul, not to attack him as an external agent, 
 or yield in spirit to the temptation to display 
 passion in return. As a human being I might 
 be merely capable of responding in gentleness 
 
SERMON ON THE MOUNT 123 
 
 and love to those who manifest gentleness and 
 love to me; but the divine love to which I 
 render myself open is capable of displaying 
 love to all, even those who are evil. On the 
 higher level I am a recipient of goodness, it is 
 the Father who is the giver of life and of 
 love. 
 
 The non-resistant attitude is not effeminate, 
 but is manly in fullest measure. Meekness 
 and humility become powerful when regarded 
 in the light of the accompanying self-restraint 
 and the inhibition of lower impulses. Non- 
 resistance is forgiveness, charity, where ex- 
 ternal resistance would be condemnation and 
 hatred. It is selective, for there are three 
 kinds of resistance and non-resistance, namely, 
 physical, mental and moral or spiritual; and 
 he who has power to practice non-resistance 
 chooses between the three possible forms of 
 response. Hence, non-resistance is by no 
 means the mild acceptance of circumstances 
 which it has been supposed to be. 
 
 Now this method is not so remote from 
 common life as it appears, but coincides at 
 many points with common sense. Every one 
 knows from experience that there are occa- 
 sions when it would be useless to intervene, 
 people who cannot be persuaded, those whom 
 
124 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 one could not by any means influence through 
 anything external. Consequently one waits, 
 depending on silence and the power of exam- 
 ple. When misunderstood we learn to bide 
 our time, saying not a word, never defending 
 ourselves, but continuing loyal to the truth as 
 we see it. In dealing with children, we know 
 the value of what may be called the flank 
 movement in meeting their unruliness, and 
 every time we have patience or take thought 
 we see the superiority of the gentler method 
 by which we guide their interests in another 
 direction. 
 
 Intellectually stated, this is the constructive 
 method by which we seek the good in others 
 and in their doctrines, emphasizing the points 
 of harmony and agreement. More thought 
 is required to do this, because it is necessary 
 not only to note the points of disagreement, 
 but to pass reflectively beyond them to the 
 larger truth in which they are fulfilled. Hence 
 we learn to transcend appearances, no longer 
 giving expression to the first opinion that 
 may arise in our mind. The implication is 
 that ultimately all truth is one, that there is a 
 unitary point of view which includes the dif- 
 ferences and contrasts which on lower levels 
 separate men into sects and opposing groups 
 
SERMON ON THE MOUNT 125 
 
 of various types. Steadily to pursue this ideal 
 is to dwell on the spirit rather than the form, 
 to seek the universal truth which voices itself 
 among all peoples. 
 
 Likewise in dealing with our fellows, when 
 we are wise and pause to consider, we pene- 
 trate behind appearances to the motive, the 
 highest intent or purpose, seeking to judge by 
 that. For a man is like society at large in 
 this respect — a mere collection of tendencies 
 making toward a goal. To love a man, to 
 do one's best for him, is to regard him in 
 the light of the centralizing ideal toward which 
 he is striving. So in the case of one's own 
 self: to make sure headway is to let the eye 
 be single to the consistent individual we hope 
 to be, never allowing ourselves to regard the 
 processes of evolution as aught more than 
 means to the moral and spiritual end. 
 
 Apply this method to the affairs of the 
 nations, and you have arbitration, the ways 
 and means of the idea instead of those of the 
 sword. It only remains to convince the world 
 that this is the true method. 
 
 But what of those who, like Tolstoi, and 
 the Quakers, and the Hindoos, undertake to 
 live solely and consistently by the principle of 
 non-resistance ? Everything depends upon our 
 
126 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 understanding of the principle as viewed from 
 within, whatever we may say of the partial 
 successes of those who advocate the principle. 
 The real question is, Can one in this world, 
 with its insistence on financial and other ob- 
 jective standards, live by the law of the 
 Spirit? Surely, for this is God's world; the 
 real cosmos is moral, spiritual, and there is 
 nothing else a consistent Christian can do ex- 
 cept seriously to believe the promise that he 
 who first seeks the kingdom of God and its 
 righteousness shall be provided for. The im- 
 portant consideration is that you and I shall 
 take ourselves inwardly as we are, consider- 
 ing what each must now do in order to lift 
 the activities of life to the higher level. 
 
 As a laborer in the vineyard of the Lord, 
 I should hardly have reason to expect my labor 
 to be worthy of its hire, and to bring support 
 by the law of moral attraction, unless I do 
 what I am best fitted to accomplish with all 
 my mind and heart. Hence the significance 
 of the prayer, "What wilt thou have me to 
 do?" uttered at every turning point in the 
 pathway of the soul. What I can best do com- 
 ports with the work assigned to my brother 
 and my sister. What I am able to give, some 
 man needs, and if I hold myself open I shall 
 
SERMON ON THE MOUNT 127 
 
 he led to him who hungers and thirsts. While 
 1 do my work there is no tribulation which I 
 shall be unable to endure. Yea, the very word 
 I should speak will be given me, if only I 
 have control enough over my lower conscious- 
 ness to pause and seek it. Hence to refrain 
 from external rebuke or violence does not 
 mean to become empty, but rather to be filled. 
 
 The lower level is merely personal, private, 
 exclusive ; the higher is divine, universal, in- 
 clusive. When I act on the higher level I am 
 not concerned lest justice be not accomplished, 
 but I realize that I am acting with the powers 
 which make for righteousness. My reward 
 will depend upon my zeal, the uprightness and 
 purity of my heart. In so far as I fail, the 
 one resource is to yield myself more fully to 
 the divine promptings of my being. What 
 comes in response may sometimes involve suf- 
 fering, I may be led into the way of the cross, 
 but it will correspond with my present need 
 and my present opportunity. 
 
 This principle applies in the economic world, 
 also, and the gap between everyday life and 
 the life of the Spirit is not so wide as it ap- 
 pears. The difficulty is that we have not 
 analyzed the situation sufficiently to see these 
 relationships from the inner point of view. 
 
128 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 In fact, the more I give of the Spirit, of the 
 morally best, the more generously will my fel- 
 lows respond, the better my wares will sell, 
 if you please. In the courage and persuasive- 
 ness of the man who gives himself fully to 
 his cause, who persistently does his work, there 
 is a tremendous power. The failures are due 
 to half-heartedness and compromise, not, as 
 some suppose, to the principle itself. 
 
 But even on the ground of faith, without 
 special reference to moral causes, we have 
 known of instances which illustrate the re- 
 sponse that awaits constancy and devotion. 
 Sometimes the man who lives by this principle 
 must wait until the eleventh hour, but only 
 by so waiting shall he enjoy the full preroga- 
 tives of faith. For those who are still in doubt, 
 here is the central hypothesis, if you choose 
 to call it so, namely, the proposition of this 
 sermon that every need has been provided for. 
 He who believes that the principle is without 
 exception has a rule of life as exact as mathe- 
 matics : as we judge we shall be judged; as 
 we sow we shall reap; he who manifests de- 
 voted love shall be cared for in proportion 
 to his consecration. 
 
 The principle, then, is not new, and it had 
 long been practised in a measure in the Orient 
 
SERMON ON THE MOUNT 129 
 
 previous to the coming of Jesus. It is not 
 dependent on the incarnation, but is univer- 
 sally discoverable in human life. In what, 
 then, does its special significance consist as ex- 
 emplified in the life of Jesus? Not primarily 
 in the precept, not in the Sermon on the 
 Mount, but in the life of the Master, in the 
 power that went forth from him through his 
 ministry and the crucial events of his career. 
 We have seen to a degree in our own ex- 
 perience that there is no surer way to attain 
 an end, no greater power over our fellows 
 than the way and the power of love, of life. 
 Your adversary may confute you on every 
 point, or seem to confute you, save so far as 
 you have lived, as you have realised, and then 
 all tongues are silent, all enemies are disarmed. 
 When you comprehend a principle, you are 
 not concerned because substitutes appear to 
 thrive. In so far as you know truth, you are 
 calmly sure that it will triumph by way of its 
 own, without defense on your part. Likewise 
 when you discern a person's real character, 
 you are confident even when this person is 
 decried and maligned. Now, if you are able 
 to go a step further, and rejoice even under 
 persecution, you have touched the confines at 
 least of the region revealed to us by Jesus. 
 
130 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 You will then welcome each event that comes, 
 giving thanks that the law is fulfilled, realiz- 
 ing that changes for the better will come 
 when you yourself change at heart. 
 
 As our elder brother and leader, Jesus walks 
 in the way of life, and shows that by utter 
 fidelity the supreme goal can be reached. It 
 is not the newness of the utterance, I insist, 
 not the forms of speech or the precepts, but 
 the power of the life which is expressed 
 through the various discourses, the good 
 works, the fidelity of will illustrated in the 
 crucifixion. Thereby a balance of power was 
 established which otherwise would have been 
 impossible. And why not express this tri- 
 umph as the victory of life rather than with 
 reference to death through sacrifice? The tri- 
 umph is not negative, but positive. It is not 
 a question of external defeat, but of the power 
 set into activity by the inmost attainment. 
 Hence the supreme word is life, life. 
 
 But how shall any one know the law except 
 so far as he endeavors to live it in his own 
 person, turning directly to the Father as the 
 giver of wisdom and power? What is it to 
 live by the Spirit of God, to find the kingdom 
 to which all else shall be added? Let us say 
 in brief that it is to find the inmost center of 
 
SERMON ON THE MOUNT 131 
 
 consciousness, of thought, of feeling, of love, 
 and to be able to relate that center to the 
 world, to humanity and God. To be centered 
 is, as Emerson says, to be "wise and at home 
 today." "Lay not up for yourselves treasures 
 upon the earth, where moth and rust doth 
 consume, and where thieves break through and 
 steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in 
 heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth 
 consume, and where thieves do not break 
 through and steal: for where thy treasure is, 
 there will thy heart be also." Go to the 
 sources of life for yourself, read human his- 
 tory, observe the courses of nature and the 
 habitual activities of your fellows, enter into 
 life reflectively and transform fact into law, 
 see the meanings of things. There is no ob- 
 stacle to keep you from advancing in this re- 
 gion where things eternal are seen. "Ask and 
 ye shall receive ; seek and ye shall find." The 
 cosmos of the moral order shall be yours if 
 you are willing to react upon it, to make it 
 your own by purity of thought, word and 
 deed. 
 
 You can scarcely look within for a moment, 
 or isolate yourself for a season of silent medi- 
 tation or inmost prayer, without realizing that 
 there are alternatives. To renounce, to dedi- 
 
132 SPIRIT .OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 cate yourself afresh, or indulge in new reso- 
 lutions — however you may state the case — is 
 to find that the forces of the lower level rise 
 around you, so that you enact the temptation 
 over again. The circumstances of our life 
 tend, with the steadiest persistence, to draw us 
 away and into the whirl. But ever there is 
 the contrasting power, the life of the Spirit, 
 in silent attendance upon us. 
 
 St. Paul, who in his Epistle to the Romans 
 so frequently dwells upon the conflict between 
 the good that we would achieve and the unruly 
 member which outwits us, evidently held that 
 evil could be overcome with good. Hence in 
 the hierarchy of values he placed love at the 
 head, intimating that a time would come when 
 because of the light of love shining through 
 our eyes we should no longer see as in a glass 
 darkly, but face to face. He who is most 
 vividly aware of the conflict may at the same 
 time have the clearest insight into the principle 
 which brings success. The temptations in- 
 crease, the darkness gathers, and the struggle 
 becomes more intense as the way of life nar- 
 rows. Thus it is St. Paul who has most 
 graphically portrayed the contest, and it is 
 Jesus who is represented as encountering the 
 greatest temptation. Hence, too, it is Jesus 
 
SERMON ON THE MOUNT 133 
 
 to whom it is given to walk the way of the 
 cross to its summit, meeting issues such that 
 even in all the power of his knowledge and 
 his will he is reported to have cried out mo- 
 mentarily to have the cup removed, and again 
 as if forsaken. It is the humanness of all this 
 that brings the gospel home to us and makes 
 us all akin, gives the classic expression once 
 for all to the age-long struggles of the soul. 
 But it is the humanity of these great contests 
 that also makes them forever divine, since in 
 the weaknesses and in the power of the soul's 
 wrestlings we likewise behold the goodness 
 and the love of God. The sons of men and 
 the divine Father meet in that creative mo- 
 ment, the moment of the Christ, of supreme 
 fidelity to the heavenly ideal. 
 
 Well may the critic cry out that this is not 
 the Messiah whom he expected. It is no 
 wonder that the evasive ones have tried to 
 make out that mere acceptance of a creed is 
 sufficient, that Christ died for us, that our 
 sins are washed away by "the blood of the 
 Lamb." It is natural, too, that some should 
 depend on the vain repetitions which Jesus 
 advises his hearers not to employ. His words 
 strike home with tremendous power, putting 
 the burden of proof upon us, showing us that 
 
134 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 in our own efforts at self-cleansing and fidelity 
 of conduct salvation lies. Hence the alterna- 
 tives are emphasized as never before. The 
 man of peace was also he who came to bring 
 a sword. The same words that win some 
 drive others away. Controversies are aroused, 
 enmities result, and even the disciples fall 
 away for a time. The conflicts have contin- 
 ued ever since. But the triumphant last word 
 is the power of the personality, the sweet pres- 
 ence of him who could say, "Come unto me, 
 all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I 
 will give you rest." 
 
XIII 
 
 THE NEW THOUGHT 1 
 
 BY NANNIE S. BOND 
 
 The thought we are considering is not new 
 intrinsically; it is the esoteric teaching of the 
 Scriptures of every nation. It has been 
 glimpsed by poets, prophets, seers in all ages, 
 so that not alone the Bible, but all literature, 
 is illumined when the rays of this thought fall 
 upon it. Christianity, by the mass of man- 
 kind, has been received only in the letter. 
 Even when it is interpreted in a so-called 
 spiritual sense, the mind has not always 
 grasped the esoteric teaching which identified 
 it with other religions, for all religions spring 
 from one root — God expressing Himself 
 through the finite mind. 
 
 There is much that is beautiful, inspiring 
 and uplifting in the letter of Scripture, much 
 of direct instruction and help; but when we 
 
 1 An address to the Psychomath Society, Waltham, 
 Mass., 1898. 
 
 135 
 
136 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 penetrate into the Spirit and catch glimpses 
 of the untold glories of which the letter is 
 but the shadow, we can no more rest content 
 in the letter than we can live our adult life 
 by the scant knowledge and wisdom of our 
 childhood. The soul can no more go back- 
 ward in manifestation than the tree can be- 
 come a seed. The soul is drawn ever on and 
 on toward perfection. 
 
 What is this esoteric teaching which con- 
 stitutes the basis of the "New Thought"? The 
 self is the soul, and is one with God. If the 
 soul is one with God, it must contain within 
 itself all power and efficiency, and it must 
 look within for Truth. 
 
 When this truth with its correlatives is re- 
 ceived a new birth takes place in the soul. It 
 may formulate itself like this: "Behold, I 
 make all things new." I have been in bond- 
 age to sensation, and so have been ill ; to wrong 
 opinions, and so have been unfortunate. Now 
 I make a new world and a new body. At first 
 there may be little apparent change in the 
 man, but the turning point has been reached; 
 he has aroused himself; he has begun to live; 
 a sense of security and peace attends his every 
 action. Gradually layer after layer of selfism 
 is cast off ; personal vagaries, whims and idio- 
 
THE NEW THOUGHT 137 
 
 syncrasies fall away, and the Soul comes forth 
 in all its glory. 
 
 The Old Thought, truth in the letter, sees 
 the Promised Land, but cannot enter it. With 
 the New Thought we begin the journey 
 thither, and our progress is slow or rapid, ac- 
 cording as we understand and obey it. It is 
 not until one proves the truth of some very 
 simple law that he is willing to take the rest 
 on faith; then he goes on proving the Truth 
 more and more for himself. In the Old 
 Thought it is easy to realize that there is 
 perfect safety in the spiritual realm for the 
 soul which trusts in God. We feel such a 
 soul must be protected; we have no doubt in 
 the matter. Then this same confidence takes 
 possession of us as we think of a soul seeking 
 truth for its own sake in the intellectual realm. 
 We feel such an one must be protected; he 
 can read anything, trusting to the integrity of 
 his mind to eliminate error. But when we 
 come to the physical plane, a mighty force 
 seems pitted against our ignorance, and we 
 feel helpless and at the mercy of this force. 
 If we walk into the fire we are burned ; if we 
 walk into the water we are drowned. At this 
 point the New Thought asserts that it is pos- 
 sible for the soul to command the mind, and 
 
138 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 thus enable the body to rise superior to de- 
 structive forces. . . . 
 
 The need to look within for truth is very 
 apparent, when one reads the mass of books 
 and magazines on this subject in circulation. 
 There is often so much chaff to one grain of 
 wheat. We long to fly to the "Secret Place 
 of the Most High," to be free from the "strife 
 of tongues." There we can quietly rest our 
 mind, and from out the silence that which is 
 essential for our progress becomes clear to us, 
 and the rest fades away. It is no task to 
 read in one line ; the thought slips easily along 
 the accustomed channels in the brain. But if 
 we would grow into a knowledge of the New 
 Thought as it is presented by different minds, 
 we must read widely and accept truth wher- 
 ever found. Nothing is more fatal to growth 
 than to rest in any one's interpretation of 
 truth as final. 
 
 We must follow methods and rules, and 
 learn the law in this as in all else. Do we 
 wish to realize God's presence in our soul, 
 we must shut out all unworthy moods, all un- 
 worthy thoughts. We cannot find God when 
 we are impatient or depressed. God does not 
 hide Himself, but we have obscured our spir- 
 itual vision and cannot see Him. Do we wish 
 
THE NEW THOUGHT 139 
 
 to train the mind to see truth, we must obey 
 the laws of the mind; we cannot analyze or 
 grasp any subject under consideration by let- 
 ting our thoughts lazily drift, with no will at 
 the helm. Methods for training the mind and 
 body are various as given in Metaphysical Sci- 
 ence, Theosophy, Christian Science and Men- 
 tal Science. Each person pursues the course 
 which appeals to him as most reasonable, but 
 no one can try any of these various methods 
 without benefit and without soon realizing in 
 his own changed consciousness that there is 
 a potency in these methods which proves the 
 existence of law governing the realm which 
 before seemed chaotic and confused. 
 
 May it not be that we are to learn that there 
 must be development on all the planes — spir- 
 itual, mental, physical; that if one is ignored 
 it is to the detriment of the rest? "Man shall 
 not live by bread alone." Have we not tried 
 to do this? 
 
 Have we not neglected to use the force of 
 thought on the mental plane, and the power 
 of high and lofty moods of the spiritual realm, 
 in our government of the physical ? In the in- 
 dividual there must be an awakening which is 
 felt on all these three planes. Where there is 
 Life there is activity. God is Life, and when 
 
140 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 this Life flows freely through us there must be 
 action; there can be no stagnant places, no 
 sluggish streams. This Life is a positive force, 
 and sweeps away all negative conditions. The 
 question of greatest importance to the invalid 
 must ever be, How can I receive this Life? 
 The law by which it may be imparted by one 
 to another is not yet sufficiently understood 
 to make its action uniform and available at all 
 times ; but some have been able so to grasp it 
 as to manifest health in their own bodies, 
 though unable to use it with equal success 
 under all conditions for others. 
 
 The new psychology, if not an outcome, is 
 a co-ordinate factor with the New Thought: 
 the one helps the other. From these allies 
 we learn that physiological changes are made 
 in the brain and body by thought, and that 
 this thought, according to its character and 
 quality, hinders or helps the working of spirit 
 in us; that thus habits are formed, evil is 
 rooted out and good established in character. 
 Persons who have tried for years by the old 
 methods of repression, by prayer and so-called 
 religious helps, to overcome certain faults — as 
 impatience, irritability, anger, fault-finding, 
 depression — find them vanish by the applica- 
 tion of a few simple rules which establish real 
 
THE NEW THOUGHT 141 
 
 physiological changes in the brain and awaken 
 dormant nerve-centers in the body. Thus we 
 recognize law on the three planes. But we 
 must remember that according to the New 
 Thought the power operating in these laws is 
 soul, that there is no force resident in matter. 
 The soul knows itself a child of God, uses the 
 mind to think according to this ideal, and thus 
 brings about the right action of the forces 
 in the body. We may find that what we call 
 physiological laws will change with the mental 
 and spiritual unfoldment of the race. 
 
 I will try to give some of the rules which 
 separate themselves in my memory as most im- 
 portant. First, we must take the right con- 
 ditions ; there must be peace within and with- 
 out. If the truth has been met in the mind 
 with argument, this stage must be passed ; the 
 noise must cease before one can accomplish 
 anything in mind and body. We create our 
 own mental atmosphere, and while the storm 
 of argument and controversy is raging in our 
 mind it is divided against itself. We must 
 know that truth is within, and the arguments 
 and reasons we present to our mind must be 
 convincing and authoritative, before we begin 
 to apply any rule for the reception of this 
 truth within. Then peace being established in 
 
142 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 the mind, there must be peace without. Some- 
 times it seems that to be unselfish one must 
 meet every demand made upon him by others. 
 Experience teaches that the result of such a 
 course is often confusion of mind and appar- 
 ent arrest of spiritual growth. The course 
 to pursue is a question for the individual to 
 decide; but for meditation and concentra- 
 tion time must be regularly observed, if only 
 for five minutes each day. Effort must not 
 be spasmodic, but according to nature. One 
 needs to be resolute in cutting away the 
 frivolous and trifling claims of persons and 
 things. . . . 
 
 The going into the silence may act as an 
 agent in restoring health to the body, by de- 
 taching us from sensation. According to the 
 idealists in the New Thought, this is always 
 the end to be sought. Invalids live in thought 
 in disagreeable or painful sensations, and even 
 when comparatively free from pain, on what 
 is called "well days," they still often live in 
 sensation by keeping in thought how much 
 better they feel. 1 This is far from the normal 
 condition. We should be free from con- 
 sciousness of sensation either good or bad. 
 
 1 Miss Bond was for many years an invalid before 
 she adopted the New Thought. — Ed. 
 
THE NEW THOUGHT 143 
 
 We should realize that it is soul which feels, 
 not body. . . . 
 
 This thought is for those who are athirst 
 for truth, for those who have not yet solved 
 their life problems. The ideas and opinions 
 held by individuals will be modified more or 
 less according to their present understanding 
 of truth. To some it is but the grafting of 
 new fruit, to others it is the uprooting of the 
 tree. It sweeps away the old idea of saintli- 
 ness; it broadens and expands our ideal; it 
 shows us that true spiritual development in- 
 cludes physical wholeness. We cannot be in 
 bondage to the body and be a "new creature 
 in Christ Jesus" at the same time. We must 
 meet the requirements or acknowledge our de- 
 ficiencies. We can no longer rest content with 
 emotional religion, or a religion of sentiment 
 or a religion of inward ecstasy; our religion 
 must be a renovating power in mind and body 
 alike. No idle dreaming for those who stand 
 in the ranks of the New Thought, but steady, 
 persistent effort in overcoming old conditions 
 of mind and body. . . . 
 
 The tendency of the New Thought is to 
 simplify. This must be so, for it is a broader 
 generalization. The New Thought does not 
 limit God. If one has rested in the concept 
 
144 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 of a personal God, the New Thought will lead 
 on to an idea of God beyond all such limita- 
 tion. The personal God is simply the picture 
 which the finite mind presents to itself of 
 Reality. "God is Light, in Him is no dark- 
 ness." When the mind would approach this 
 Reality it is blinded by excess of Light; the 
 mind cannot grasp the great truth of its one- 
 ness with God; it must be led on gently by 
 the soul. 
 
 As our idea of God is expanded we see man 
 in new light. Those powers we have looked 
 upon as supernatural we find to be natural 
 and inherent in man ; he is potentially different 
 as viewed from the New Thought. . . . 
 
 The New Thought teaches us to see God in 
 everything. If we see Him in everything, 
 there is no evil to us. "When me they fly, I am 
 the wings." 1 We find good everywhere, and 
 when the New Thought limits itself to one 
 interpretation of truth and tells us to walk 
 therein, it has ceased to be the New Thought. 
 There is deeper meaning in life and a greater 
 centralizing force in character, when one thus 
 sees God in everything. Then all experience 
 translates itself into one language, and our 
 philosophy of life is simply this expression in 
 
 1 From Emerson's poem, "Brahma." 
 
THE NEW THOUGHT 145 
 
 words of individual experience. Experience 
 translating itself into thought is thus contin- 
 ually adding new stars to our sky. 
 
 The New Thought differentiates persons; 
 they become more individualized as they find 
 their center of consciousness in God. What is 
 more fitting than that the inner worship and 
 adoration of each soul should find outward ex- 
 pression in appropriate symbols? The church 
 and its institutions are these symbols, and each 
 soul by its very differentiation should be a 
 note in a grand symphony of worship. If we 
 find God in everything, in every event and 
 experience of life, surely He will be found in 
 every religion or philosophy formulated by 
 the human mind. We shall find more of His 
 spirit in one than in another, but each lives 
 by the truth that is in it, not by the error. 
 God is not glorified by magnifying one's own 
 religion and depreciating his brother's. Each 
 man's religion is best for that man at the time ; 
 when it ceases to be best for him it will be 
 cast aside and a higher form substituted. If 
 one holds his form of religion as superior to 
 that held by all others, he allies himself to 
 the narrow spirit of the Hebrew nation against 
 which Jesus put forth all his power, and in 
 combating which Paul has given to the world 
 
146 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 some of the most eloquent passages in his 
 Epistles. The lowest form of religion may 
 contain some truth which a higher form has 
 neglected to emphasize. To those to whom 
 public worship is the meeting together of 
 persons whose minds are run in the same 
 mold, who can think only certain thoughts and 
 hold certain ideas, the New Thought stands 
 opposed ; for the New Thought in its broader 
 sense should make worship possible, though 
 each soul worship God under a different sym- 
 bol. God may be worshiped in phenomena, 
 or worshiped as force back of phenomena, or 
 he may be put so far away as to be worshiped 
 as the "Unknowable, " or the thought may go 
 out to a loving Father as made known by the 
 Christ. The symbols are numberless. Even 
 the soul which reaches out to a Person on 
 a throne is not out of place in the assembly, 
 for he is on the way to the true idea of God. 
 As a man becomes more individualized he 
 should come into closer relations with his fel- 
 low beings ; this thought does not separate in- 
 dividuals or make the personal tie less. The 
 man who uses the New Thought brings all 
 persons into right relations with himself ; he 
 does not show his sympathy by entering into 
 the unworthy moods or thoughts of any one 
 
THE NEW THOUGHT 147 
 
 about him; he seeks to radiate light which 
 shall dispel such mists of mind; he is not in- 
 dependent of persons, he sees God in every- 
 one ; but if they fail him, he has a sure refuge 
 within, so that his peace is constant and undis- 
 turbed by outward events. 
 
 To me the knowledge gained through the 
 New Thought is a reinforcement of my belief 
 in prayer. It is to me as if, through a knowl- 
 edge of the right conditions and a knowledge 
 of the working of mental and spiritual powers, 
 we were learning how to pray, how to use 
 this great force we call prayer. As the human 
 mind comes more and more to understand the 
 working of electricity, it stands amazed at the 
 wonders wrought. The force has always been 
 here. We are just beginning to know how 
 to use it. So it seems with thought and 
 prayer; we are just beginning now to under- 
 stand what a mighty force is thought, and this 
 force underlies prayer. There can be no true 
 prayer even in the Old Thought, unless the 
 man bring the whole power of his mind to 
 bear upon it ; languid petition, doubting, wan- 
 dering prayer is but vain repetition, which 
 accomplishes nothing. We may pray fer- 
 vently for patience, doubting all the time our 
 ability to attain that virtue. But let us rein- 
 
148 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 force our mind by the affirmation of patience 
 as already attained, "I am patient," and watch 
 the result. We find the affirmation is an added 
 power. May it not be because it asserts with 
 perfect faith that what is desired is ours ? . . . 
 "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. " 
 The positive statement is made first. Law is 
 the action of God in things. By faith we set 
 in motion those laws which answer our prayer. 
 Prayer becomes simply the normal action of 
 the finite in its reaching to the Infinite. Every 
 prayer is answered. We may not always un- 
 derstand the answer; it may come in some 
 hard experience which forces us to have the 
 self-control, the patience, or whatever virtue 
 we have desired to possess. But let us keep 
 in mind that prayer needs effort. We can 
 not rise into the consciousness of the higher 
 self where God is, and think our own vain 
 thoughts at the same time. We must train 
 our mind to obey us. The New Thought 
 shows us the way. 
 
 If we have looked upon trials, as sent by 
 God ; if we have cherished the spirit which 
 hugs them to oneself with the feeling that if 
 this special one goes another will come, as if 
 God took pleasure in the unhappiness of His 
 children ; we have put undue emphasis on the 
 
THE NEW THOUGHT 149 
 
 text, "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth," 
 and so have considered ourselves, when in 
 trouble, as favored of God, then to us the 
 New Thought stands opposed. Trials are 
 seen to be a necessary stage in the soul's evo- 
 lution — means by which God is working in 
 and through us to teach us a truth. Thus 
 a lesson is learned; trials cease to be judg- 
 ments, they prove themselves friends; they 
 bring with them the deeper insight into life, 
 greater power to help. ... It is often those 
 who have suffered most who rest most pa- 
 tiently in this Love and Peace. The greater 
 souls leave there all pain and suffering in per- 
 fect faith, and not only their own suffering, 
 but the suffering of the world. They see 
 God even in the apparent evil; it is the lesser 
 souls that murmur and complain. 
 
 No phrase is fraught with deeper meaning 
 than this, "Thy will, not mine, be done." It 
 is overlaid in many minds with factitious ideas, 
 but its radical meaning is indeed a root thought 
 in all religion ; it is the only avenue by which 
 real happiness can enter the soul. This is 
 so familiarly a truth as to have become trite 
 and commonplace to many minds; but the 
 New Thought sets it ablaze with a new light 
 when it asserts that the Universal Will means 
 
150 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 perfection on every plane for every individual 
 — atom or man. Deviation from this perfec- 
 tion, either through ignorance or wilfulness, 
 must bring disorder, hence to a self-conscious 
 being, pain. The remedy must be the bringing 
 of the private will into accord with the Uni- 
 versal Will. . . . 
 
 I know no better antidote for any hard ex- 
 perience than to feel it is the beginning of 
 heaven. It must be, for God is in it and is 
 ever waiting in every soul to bring it into 
 that state of consciousness we call heaven. 
 Life should not be made a continual battle- 
 ground ; the conflict between higher and lower 
 ought to be a temporary stage in growth. 
 When once the choice is perfectly made all 
 things are added to the soul. Self-sacrifice, 
 conflict, struggle — these are means, not an 
 end. In God is Love, Peace, Joy. Let us 
 ignore evil, see only good; claim our birth- 
 right, as the New Thought is constantly reit- 
 erating. This dwelling in thought on limita- 
 tion, conflict, keeps the race on this lower 
 plane. The soul here and now should begin 
 to enter consciously upon that joy which comes 
 when desire and will are one — "the angel law," 
 as Browning expresses it. We should enter 
 the kingdom here and now, day by day lessen 
 
THE NEW THOUGHT 151 
 
 the sense of warfare and struggle by living 
 more and more in the consciousness of the 
 higher Self; for that which seems self-sacri- 
 fice ceases to be felt as such when the higher 
 Self rules. 
 
 Each must build his own world. Let us 
 rest on the foundation of a tolerance as broad 
 as that inculcated in the Vedas, and rise on 
 a love which soars in consciousness with the 
 Christ into the very heaven of heavens and 
 reaches out and down to the needs of the 
 humblest. . . . 
 
XIV 
 
 CONCENTRATION 1 
 
 BY M. E. CARTER 
 
 Concentration has been defined to be "the ac- 
 quirement of a disciplined ability to rivet one's 
 attention upon a given and well-selected ob- 
 ject." The same authority says "concentra- 
 tion, to be really worth ful, must not only be 
 rightful as to its object, but persistent in its 
 method." "In concentration fix your atten- 
 tion upon the one thing which you select as 
 the thing you must do" — or dwell upon; — 
 "hold firmly to this single idea and pursue it 
 steadily, no matter what your outer engage- 
 ment may be." This is concentration, and no 
 one who faithfully concentrates can fail in 
 the attainment of his aim. We are constantly 
 met by the declaration, "I cannot concen- 
 trate." But a little observation will prove 
 that as a rule every one can, and all do, con- 
 centrate more or less upon whatever may 
 
 1 From The Journal of Practical Metaphysics, 
 October, 1897. 
 
 153 
 
154 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 specially interest them. The Consecrated soul 
 concentrates upon high and noble aims and 
 aspirations; and the man whose desire is for 
 gold concentrates his thought-energy upon 
 its attainment, frequently employing his con- 
 centration so assiduously in the direction of 
 wealth that he sacrifices home-life, health and 
 his peace of mind, only to find at last, when 
 he has accomplished the desire of his life, 
 that the power to enjoy his wealth has gone, 
 and he is himself the anxious possessor of 
 millions and obliged to bend all his mental 
 forces upon the keeping of his stocks and 
 bonds, his houses and lands, his mortgages and 
 manifold securities, or insecurities. Too early 
 comes failing health, the usual appendix to 
 the experience of the multimillionaire. 
 
 Jake another case, the student, determined 
 upon intellectual attainment. He, too, focal- 
 izes all his energies in one direction, concen- 
 trates day and night upon the desired object, 
 and just in proportion to the energy and per- 
 sistence of the focusing of his thought come, 
 sooner or later, the name and the fame he 
 seeks. Here again we see, although the aim 
 has certainly been higher than that of the one 
 who sought for gold, result similar to the first. 
 
 The woman who loves fashion and dress 
 
CONCENTRATION 155 
 
 and admiration finds no difficulty in concen- 
 trating her powers and energies in the direc- 
 tion of her desires. She sacrifices home-life, 
 the society of her children and all the real 
 beauty of living to this one end and aim, — and 
 in the same measure that she concentrates she 
 accomplishes her object. In all of these cases 
 there will of course be disappointment to 
 meet and obstacles to overcome, but these will 
 usually intensify the concentration and es- 
 tablish the will. Coming into conflict with the 
 unalterable laws of their being or ignoring 
 them for a time, sooner or later the law which 
 they have attempted to break scourges them, 
 and the penalty is paid to the uttermost, for 
 no law of our being can be broken by us. 
 Transgression breaks the transgressor, or 
 more truly, converts him or her in time. 
 
 A pleasanter illustration of concentration on 
 this earth plane is seen in the little child at play, 
 when, without any effort, its whole thought is 
 centered upon its game, while teachers and 
 parents find a strenuous effort necessary to 
 attract its attention. Someone has said that 
 Concentration in one word expresses "pay- 
 ing attention." We pay attention to that upon 
 which we concentrate. We pay attention to 
 that which interests us. All these cases cited 
 
156 SPIRIT .OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 are so familiar to us that they need no re- 
 inforcement by special instances to prove 
 them. They are before our eyes daily. We 
 can each and all think of some special interest 
 in our lives when concentration of thought, 
 purpose and action were no effort, rather a 
 pleasure, and we have found ourselves ab- 
 sorbed in our thought, work, or pleasure, to 
 such a degree that our friends sometimes have 
 found fault with us, and wished that we would 
 not concentrate so assiduously. 
 
 And yet, in the face of all these incontro- 
 vertible facts, we hear frequently the state- 
 ment from many intelligent and thoughtful 
 people, "I cannot concentrate." The sentence 
 is always unfinished and should run thus : "I 
 cannot concentrate upon the truth of my 
 being; nor upon the life-awakening thought 
 of my relation to my Source and what that 
 means to me." This may be true to a certain 
 extent, but there is not a human being who 
 cannot concentrate upon the highest thought 
 that he or she may wish and will to concen- 
 trate upon, provided the will be trained in the 
 direction of aspiration. 
 
 When we begin to realize the truth of Being 
 we shall see to it that will and desire are 
 conjoined, and the result will be that our 
 
CONCENTRATION 157 
 
 power of concentration will increase since 
 the consciousness will be aroused to seek 
 higher realms of thought, and with the as- 
 piration and soul hunger arising from knowl- 
 edge of what is of value will come a vision 
 of the true relation of things and thoughts. 
 Then, and then only, can we say, I will think 
 upon what I will to think about. And just 
 as naturally as we take our food and sleep 
 regularly shall we go into the supreme silence 
 of our true spiritual being and hold ourselves 
 there steadily and calmly, for power, for 
 peace, for strength, for usefulness, and for 
 all that of which we may at any time feel 
 the need. 1 
 
 Some may ask, How can one concentrate 
 upon celestial ideas when one's whole life is 
 led among things so opposite ? A story is told 
 of an active business man who had learned 
 to go into the silence for power and guid- 
 ance, and who always, while sitting at his 
 desk in his office, when the whirl of business 
 went on about him throughout the day, if he 
 felt the need of instruction or direction, then 
 and there, without stirring from his desk, he 
 
 1 The expression "going into the silence" is an 
 equivalent among New Thought people for spiritual 
 meditation and concentration upon ideal suggestions. 
 —Ed. 
 
158 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 withdrew his thought from the outer world, 
 from his desk, his books, and all distractions, 
 and went promptly into the silence of his 
 inmost self. Regardless of the din of busi- 
 ness, regardless of all not within his own di- 
 vine consciousness, he sat quietly viewing 
 the spiritual vision, listening to the voice 
 divine, learning the way to walk surely and 
 wisely, and to do the best in the circum- 
 stances he was to meet. Thus he sat quietly 
 until, taught by that wonderful inner voice, 
 he was ready to return to his business duties, 
 reinforced and ready for wise action. 
 
 Concentration has been truly named "the 
 key to power." Its opposite, scattered, un- 
 governed thinking, means weakness, failure, 
 disintegration. Concentration, rightly directed, 
 leads to knowledge born of the intuition thus 
 unfolded. Knowledge and intuition developed 
 in the silence teach us the way of salvation 
 from all error, and the inharmony that er- 
 roneous scattered thinking brings upon the 
 ignorant or undeveloped soul. In the silence 
 of concentration we become one with the 
 great universal Intelligence, knowledge, truth, 
 existence and bliss. In the silence the vision 
 clears and spiritual things are spiritually dis- 
 cerned. The perplexities of the work-a-day 
 
CONCENTRATION 159 
 
 world disappear, and the wisest and best 
 thing to do in any given instance comes to 
 us; anxieties flee away; the soul, realizing 
 its divine self, serenely watches for its own 
 heavenly vision which is ever waiting for 
 recognition, and is only hidden by the clouds 
 of earth-born thinking. 
 
 This silence has been called going up into 
 the mountain. In all the Scriptures the reve- 
 lations which have been given to prophets 
 and seers have been received by them on 
 mountain tops or in still places. One great 
 prophet of old, when he went to the mountain 
 to listen, heard no Divine Voice in the whirl- 
 wind nor in the storm, but the still small voice 
 of inspiration came after the noises were all 
 passed. When the child of God listens at- 
 tentively for the inner voice, then comes the 
 peace which passes all understanding. 
 
 One who has often been quoted has said: 
 "We must go not only up the mount, climb, 
 so to speak, but we must go into it, away from 
 sights and sounds terrestrial, if we would be 
 shown the pattern of heavenly living and 
 thinking, which may only be seen up above 
 and in the mountain-top of our loftiest con- 
 sciousness, where all things are transfigured 
 because the effulgence of the Divine is there 
 
160 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 flowing forth unobstructed and making all 
 things radiant." 
 
 Concentration, rightly directed by the will, 
 trained to aspiration, will invariably lead to 
 those high peaks of vision where all thought 
 is clarified and we see greater and grander 
 visions beckoning to us to ascend higher and 
 still higher. Only in the silence and on that 
 mountain can this transfiguration be experi- 
 enced, and the way to this unspeakable knowl- 
 edge, existence and bliss is through concentra- 
 tion. The mountain heights and the stillness 
 are within the soul-consciousness of each and 
 every child of God. Seek and ye shall find 
 your own divine self ever on the heights, ever 
 beckoning you to loftier visions. 
 
XV 
 FROM WITHIN OUTWARD 1 
 
 BY FRED VINCENT FULLER 
 
 "What a man does, that he has. What has he to 
 do with hope or fear? In himself is his might. Let 
 him regard no good as solid but that which is in 
 his nature and which must grow out of him as long 
 as he exists. The goods of fortune may come and 
 go like summer leaves. Let him play with them and 
 scatter them on every wind as the momentary signs 
 of his infinite productiveness." — Ralph Waldo Emer- 
 son. 
 
 Man, like a potato, dog, lily and every or- 
 ganic thing, grows from within outward; and 
 further, the quality and need of his inner or 
 spiritual life by grand and exact steps deter- 
 mines his external scenery, experiences and 
 happiness through an inflexible law of corre- 
 spondence and attraction. All who hold to 
 their high ideals and wisely cooperate with 
 the few great spiritual laws now more clearly 
 comprehended than at any previous time, will 
 
 1 From The Journal of Practical Metaphysics, 
 March, 1898. 
 
 161 
 
162 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 see their lives grow complete and harmonious, 
 for "to be spiritually minded is life and peace." 
 Those lives which are perturbed, eccentric 
 and unhappy illustrate the result of antagon- 
 izing these great principles of growth through 
 lack of knowledge, prejudice, or indifference, 
 due to man's yet slight elevation in the scale 
 of evolution. In all the New Thought no one 
 thing seems so marvelous, even preposterous, 
 to me at the start as the statement, "As a man 
 thinketh in his heart, so is he," carried to its 
 fullest limits, and that our divergence from 
 health, tranquillity, happiness, came from error 
 at the center — the domination of wrong 
 thoughts, a warped inner life, spiritual crook- 
 edness, unreal conceptions of being. Before 
 I could fully accept this stern decree of per- 
 sonal responsibility, the fact that each man is 
 his own calamity-breeder, and the magnify- 
 ing of so slight a thing as thinking into an 
 irresistible governing force, I had to ponder 
 long, read much, and talk with many who had 
 long lived among these clear truths and proved 
 them in everyday life. For, while this claim 
 will bear the closest scrutiny, the result of 
 rational thinking and living does not at once 
 appear in material evidence, as it is a matter 
 of growth like the physical gain in size in 
 
FROM WITHIN OUTWARD 163 
 
 plant and animal, — a sort of gradual becom- 
 ing. Again, in making observations one is 
 compelled to judge in most all cases from seen 
 effects and appearances, instead of from the 
 real motive or thought. Where harmonious 
 surroundings and a tranquil, happy nature are 
 found together, it has heretofore been ex- 
 plained on the materialistic basis, that a man's 
 good fortune in life gave him his peaceful, 
 happy air. Any observer may know, how- 
 ever, from a few keen glances about, that mere 
 riches, power or fame of themselves more 
 often give discontent and carewornness than 
 happiness. A young merchant who thought 
 that the possession of $25,000 would make him 
 content, worked for that end. When he had 
 acquired this amount of money it seemed pal- 
 try, and he saw much more was necessary to 
 satisfy him, and so he worked on, always about 
 to be but never quite contented. Power and 
 fame in the same way flit alluringly before 
 one, but when attained never satisfy ; nor can 
 the possession of material things alone give 
 happiness, and in the fact that happiness is 
 a matter of mood, dependent upon simple and 
 interior things which can be had by all with- 
 out price, is the wisdom of Omnipotence 
 shown. 
 
164 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 It is becoming more and more known that 
 a strong, poised, sunny child of harmony has 
 good fortune, peace, abundance in health as 
 accessories to his clear inner life, and because 
 through knowledge or instinctively he has 
 "hitched his wagon to a star/' perceiving "that 
 the mind that is parallel with the laws of na- 
 ture will be in the current of events, and strong 
 with their strength." 
 
 Emerson says, "A man's fortunes are the 
 fruit of his character"; therefore, if one in 
 taking account of his gifts in life finds not 
 a satisfactory grouping of desirables about 
 him, let him know that he can draw and attract 
 more happy events into the circumference of 
 his life by setting his center right, by deserv- 
 ing more, although he should know also that 
 happiness is a subjective condition, a mental 
 state, a matter of mood wholly independent 
 of things. Let him displace anger, envy, 
 doubt, fear, uncharitableness, by dwelling 
 upon and practising their opposites. Let him 
 be poised and trustful, and know that his gain 
 and enlargement of life will be slow but grand, 
 that thinking fine and high on Tuesday will 
 not cause gifts to fall at his feet from out 
 of a clear sky on Wednesday. 
 
 If fortunate conditions already attend him, 
 
FROM WITHIN OUTWARD 165 
 
 then let him know that these manifest through 
 law, and that he need not, with the apprehen- 
 sion of a timid man walking on a steep side 
 hill, dig in and cling and strain to hold what 
 is his very own, for if things belong to him he 
 is upheld by universal law, and if they don't 
 they must depart anyway. To be sure, untold 
 thousands of men think in their own hearts 
 that they barely maintain their social and busi- 
 ness positions in life, whatever they may be, 
 except by brutal force, strife and gnashing of 
 teeth; and because the aspect of the whole 
 world of circumstances is fluid and change- 
 able, and everything reflects back to them their 
 own fierce mood, this idea of strife becomes 
 really true to their eyes, for everything they 
 see proves their fixed idea that life is a battle, 
 and furnishes another of the innumerable ap- 
 plications of Emerson's masterly assertion 
 that "what we are, that we see." 
 
 A good example of the law in a large way 
 of the internal controlling the external is found 
 among the Friends, whose inner lives, habits 
 of waiting upon the Spirit, and ways free from 
 contention drew to them a good measure of 
 worldly things, sufficient for their needs and 
 comfort. They were more free from diseases 
 than other classes of people and their average 
 
166 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 age was longer. Had they consciously known 
 and practised to a still greater extent these 
 principles, their example might have been yet 
 more striking. Every strong and unique life 
 has become so through following its high lead- 
 ings. Christopher Columbus, Michael Angelo, 
 Phillips Brooks and every life of worth are 
 further illustrations of the law of the mate- 
 rialization of the inner, and we are now ready 
 to be taught that friction, outward strife and 
 rush which have so long been deified by self- 
 made man were hindrances, not aids to the 
 complete realization of their fullest individu- 
 ality. A man merely rich in money and poor 
 in everything else that yields wholeness can- 
 not be taken as an illustration of the working 
 of this law ; nor can he pass as a fortunate or 
 successful person, for this sort of wealth which 
 is not synonymous with tranquillity comes and 
 goes through the minor and temporary attrac- 
 tions of a lower plane. 
 
 Here you will say that you know many good 
 people who are bound to hard, biting condi- 
 tions of life ; and this easily appears so at 
 first glance, but "good" in the old, dreary, 
 material sense is not synonymous with the 
 spiritually vitalized life, free from fear, fret, 
 discontent, shining with thanksgiving and ap- 
 
FROM WITHIN OUTWARD 167 
 
 preciation, and in the sweep of "the sublime 
 laws which play indifferently through atoms 
 and galaxies." 
 
 Why thought must be the controlling force 
 can be clearly shown. If God exists and 
 stands for order and justice, then all must be 
 right and good on its plane as interpreted by 
 evolution, while inflexible law and justice must 
 be supreme and all-pervading whether per- 
 ceived by us or not, and no confusion exists 
 in reality. This omniscient and omnipotent 
 law of compensation, if it runs through and 
 regulates all human affairs, must operate 
 through some substance or force which lies 
 at the very source of all human acts and 
 effects, and not from the appearance or seem- 
 ing of things as indicated by results alone as 
 man judges. On close analysis it will be seen 
 that one cannot go behind thought or motive 
 for the cause back of every effect and event 
 in the drama of life ; and often we have found 
 that when the real motive was seen our verdict 
 based on appearances had to be reversed. A 
 man goes back after thirty years to his native 
 town and builds a library. The town throws 
 its hat into the air and says, "How generous ! 
 how noble!" and calls for his canonization. 
 Of itself library-giving is certainly praise- 
 
168 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 worthy, and yet despicable motives may have 
 prompted the act if they could be revealed. 
 Had you access to his thoughts, you might 
 have seen that the gift was made for self- 
 glory, or as a step toward political prefer- 
 ment. The real thought and motive of this 
 action and every other are, however, truly 
 and indelibly registered in this man's own con- 
 sciousness, adding buoyancy always to him 
 spiritually, and thus adding to or subtracting 
 from the time of his final wholeness of happi- 
 ness, and the things thereto pertaining. 
 
 We now perceive that a self-recording judg- 
 ment attended by exact justice can be rightly 
 made by and through thought only, for the 
 effect, appearance, occasion, act, may play a 
 part, while the origin or thought preceding 
 every event and act is perfectly and automat- 
 ically registered by the stylus of memory on 
 the tinfoil of consciousness, and is never de- 
 ceived. 
 
 Mere thinking may seem to be as unsub- 
 stantial as the wind that blows, but from it 
 everything accomplished by man first springs. 
 The towering building, bridge, splendid statue, 
 machine, were first conceived in thought and 
 then externalized by patient effort. Emerson 
 grasped the fact that thought was everything 
 
FROM WITHIN OUTWARD 169 
 
 in the final analysis and said, "Thought is 
 the wages for which I sell days." Again rec- 
 ognizing the creative, magnetic, attractive 
 power of thought he says, "Nature is not, 
 therefore, your own world. As fast as you 
 conform your life to the pure idea in your 
 mind, that will unfold its great proportion. 
 A correspondent revolution in things will at- 
 tend the influx of spirit." How sublime is 
 this law of spiritual gravity by which we rise 
 into harmony or fall into discord, and which 
 we have just learned to know and apply to 
 daily life. We embrace it in glad appreciation 
 and with the humbleness that Newton felt 
 when he tore the curtain of ignorance away 
 from the law of gravitation and it stood 
 nudely revealed before him. Like other 
 mighty universal principles, this great law of 
 correspondence and attraction by which the 
 spirit draws its own embellishment is absolute 
 in action, as noiseless as the mighty forces 
 which daintily whirl and balance worlds, as 
 invisible as steam, wind and ether, and as 
 unerring as the instinct of electricity when 
 instantly it chooses of many wires the shortest 
 one to earth. 
 
 In each generation a lonely Emerson has 
 awakened and gazed with shaded eyes on 
 
170 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 new bits of dazzling truth, and then has un- 
 derstandingly passed them over to his age; 
 but nothing which came with its faint birth 
 cries into humanity's past, or can come to a 
 God-sharpened soul of the future, will add 
 more to the felicity of the race than the wide 
 recognition and persistent application of the 
 fact that a man's happiness and welfare are 
 thrown off from and absolutely revolve about 
 his inner thought-life, thus rendering him 
 master of his fate. 
 
XVI 
 IS MENTAL SCIENCE ENOUGH? 
 
 BY SUSIE C. CLARK 
 
 [Miss Clark, for many years a successful prac- 
 titioner and author of books on mental healing, is 
 one of those who find intimate relation between the 
 New Thought and the higher phases of spiritualism. 
 As she stands somewhat apart, she ventures freely 
 to express her reaction upon the mental healing 
 movement as a whole. In the following address, 
 delivered in one of the conventions, she indicates 
 possible shortcomings in the typical doctrine, once 
 known as "Mental Science."] 
 
 A perfect unity is possible in a wide diver- 
 sity of thought, opinion, and method: a unity 
 of purpose, aim, and pleasant comradeship. 
 In differentiation of thought is wealth; con- 
 formity breeds stagnation always. The med- 
 ical regime often counsels a counter-irritant, 
 therefore it is well perhaps that a field-laborer 
 who has been regarded as something of a 
 heretic in strictly metaphysical ranks — a little 
 outside the pale of good and regular standing 
 — should be so kindly welcomed into this noble 
 171 
 
172 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 company of strong, conscientious workers that 
 the depth and sincere fervor of her heresy may 
 be outlined. 
 
 Mental Science has a pure and beautiful 
 record as an evangel of freedom and uplift- 
 ment to the human race. In the few years 
 since this system of pure, strong thinking and 
 righteous living has gained wide acceptance, 
 how many hearts it has blessed; how many 
 minds it has educated and illumined; how 
 many impotent and suffering bodies have its 
 blessed ministrations raised to usefulness and 
 power! And this glorious work has hardly 
 begun. God speed it onward, and bless every 
 one of the noble exponents thereof who mar- 
 shal under its banners ! And, in the fulness 
 of time, may their beneficent eyes be cleared 
 of all astigmatism; for the Mental Scientist 
 of yesterday (we should hardly like to say of 
 today) has too often worn near-sighted glasses, 
 thus limiting his range of vision. 
 
 "All is Mind." (I quote from a Mental 
 Science writer.) "This is the basis of Men- 
 tal Science teaching, and proves to be infallible. 
 From it proceed the very issues of life, includ- 
 ing health, wealth, and happiness." Now, shall 
 we accept unquestioned this "infallible" state- 
 ment? Is Mind the "All" of life or causation ; 
 
IS MENTAL SCIENCE ENOUGH? 173 
 
 and what is Mind ? While we are aware that 
 the metaphysician claims for this affirmation 
 of Being more than the generally accepted 
 definition of mind, which designates it "the in- 
 tellectual and rational faculty in man; that 
 power which conceives, judges, and reasons" ; 
 and that the metaphysician includes in this 
 term the spiritual nature, even the soul, yet 
 mind never can adequately and correctly de- 
 fine or become the vital force and energy, the 
 immortal part of man — that intelligence which, 
 unlike mind, is independent of any mortal 
 existence or embodiment: the spirit. 
 
 "The spirit never was born; the soul began 
 to be, never" ; while mind is the result of this 
 potential spirit essence breathing upon the 
 material elements of the brain, as it does in 
 the babe, until the mind, with its wondrous 
 power of thought ... is gradually evolved: 
 the child's spirit — its vital spark of Life from 
 the primeval Flame — being the same at every 
 age. That expression of Being, therefore, 
 which we call mind is thus dependent for its 
 existence on the body and belongs to the body ; 
 its action is strictly mechanical, and too often 
 material. For while the mind has an inner as 
 well as an outer gate, a diviner part which, 
 aided by another faculty, intuition, may re- 
 
174 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 ceive messages of supernal wisdom, yet the 
 pendulum of man's mentality is always apt to 
 sag a little on the external plane. 
 
 Mind alone is wholly inadequate to express 
 the idea of an immortal essence. Spirit is 
 the breath of Life, the only reality, the un- 
 conquerable power. Mind is dependent upon 
 the senses and outer nature for its excitation 
 and unfoldment. Spirit is always the same, 
 whether seeking expression in form of arch- 
 angel or man ; while Soul, the primal entity, 
 is as unlike Mind as the sun is unlike the bit 
 of glass whence its rays are reflected. "Soul 
 does not, like mind, depend upon matter — does 
 not, like the spirit, diffuse life through matter 
 — but it is the uncreated perfection of being. 
 The soul is God in us." The mind and the soul 
 are not even close friends. For atheists and 
 materialists who reason exclusively from the 
 mind usually, if not always, ignore the verity 
 of an immortal soul. . 
 
 Does this not prove the inadequacy of our 
 "All is Mind" statement? Does it not suggest 
 that while a growth from the old race-error 
 of a belief of life in matter, and of physical 
 causation, is a most necessary and encourag- 
 ing stepping-stone in human progress, the 
 close adherents of such theory have withdrawn 
 
IS MENTAL SCIENCE ENOUGH? 175 
 
 only one step from the physical plane to the 
 mental, and there are many spiritual heights 
 beyond that await our advancing feet, from 
 whose altitude our mental state will then be 
 a purified, illumined reflection of the spiritual 
 grasp and unfoldment — as a strong, healthy 
 body is the reflection of an enlightened mind? 
 As the eye is the material lens of the mind, 
 so the mind is but a lens projected by the 
 spirit for use on this plane of existence. "The 
 mind is but the trestleboard, on which the 
 spirit with electric pen carves out its plan." 
 Thoughts, verily, are "things," or, better, 
 forces — the causative energies that materialize 
 all things ; but the brain is always acted upon : 
 never does it act per se. 1 Thought is really 
 spirit-vibration moving the brain to action. 
 Then does it not follow, fellow-workers, that 
 to take up the thought of a patient does not 
 reach the plane of causation ? The brain does 
 not create or produce thought, but reflects 
 the intelligence of the spirit — sometimes its 
 own incarnate spirit, often also that of spirit 
 ^^rcarnate. 2 
 
 1 The statement that "thoughts are things" was 
 made popular by Prentice Mulford, author of various 
 booklets once widely read. — Ed. 
 
 2 Miss Clark finds truth in the idea of spirit- 
 obsession. — Ed. 
 
176 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 There is always a cause back of mind. The 
 spirit when using its spiritual form has its 
 own eyes and ears and feelers — invisible an- 
 tennae, which are quite independent of mental 
 action. In retreating one step from the phys- 
 ical plane, let us take another and a higher 
 step also, since all one-idea systems fall to the 
 ground sooner or later — as they should — or, 
 better, yield of their harvest and fruitage to 
 enrich a broader, grander successor. The soul 
 has other avenues of manifestation than the 
 mind. Shall we allow its expression to be 
 narrow and one-sided ; shall we fail to use our 
 valuable and practical psychic powers in con- 
 junction with mental attributes? Psyche 
 clearly means soul; and are we not a race of 
 souls? Then is there any discredit in using 
 our soul-powers? Yet the very word "psy- 
 chic" is tabooed as something uncanny. Some 
 of our best metaphysical authorities — teachers 
 and authors of our literature — have counseled 
 pupils to have nothing to do with the psychic 
 plane, as it tends to "unbalance the mind." 
 Poor, defenseless Mind — this Mind which is 
 "All" ! impotent soul, which can only guard 
 its purity and safety by burying part of its 
 talents in disuse ! Yet it has sometimes been 
 noticed that, when the mind of the patient is 
 
IS MENTAL SCIENCE ENOUGH? 177 
 
 particularly unbalanced, the psychic healer is 
 best qualified to diagnose and meet his need. 
 
 There is another modern school of thought, 
 which may have gone, I admit, to the other ex- 
 treme and overcultivated the psychic plane to 
 the neglect of mental and spiritual unfoldment ; 
 but, remember, worthy confreres — when you 
 state upon your program that this metaphysical 
 expression of Truth is "the grandest move- 
 ment of modern times" — that the mighty wave 
 that swept over the world with the "dawning 
 light" of 1848 has made your own position 
 possible. And it is a movement that, by the 
 way, like John Brown's soul, is still "marching 
 on." It was the first movement since the 
 apostolic age to incorporate healing as an ex- 
 pression and a part of its religion; it is the 
 true mother of all modern schools of healing, 
 or reform — even though children sometimes 
 outgrow and even disown their parents or out- 
 step them in practicalization of advanced 
 thought. 1 But the blows of persecution, ob- 
 loquy, and scorn, with which an ignorant world 
 always meets any message that comes to bless 
 it, fell not first upon your shoulders. There 
 
 ^What Miss Clark here states is true of spiritu- 
 alism, the movement to which she refers, but the 
 mental healing movement in general had an indepen- 
 dent origin in the work of P. P. Quimby. — Ed. 
 
178 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 have been martyrs for Truth's sake, bearing 
 another name, who have made the path easier 
 for your valiant feet to tread ; and they have 
 left a wealth of experience, of spiritual dis- 
 covery, which it is not wise carelessly to ig- 
 nore, whose appropriation and application in 
 the practical work of healing, as in the broader 
 field of teaching the word of an all-inclusive 
 Truth, would greatly enhance the power and 
 usefulness of the worker — would open a new 
 world (the real world) : a new realm of causa- 
 tion to his spiritual discernment. Not all is 
 Mind ; spiritual unfoldment never can be 
 gained on the mental plane. 
 
 We have another cornerstone : "All is good ; 
 there is no evil." How do we know that all is 
 good, since we can know nothing except by 
 contrast — through antagonism of ideals? If 
 we tasted only sugar, how could we know 
 sweetness? If there never had been pain, 
 how could we realize immunity therefrom ; 
 how claim the possession, thank God, of per- 
 fect health ? If there were no error to be over- 
 come, no so-called sin in the world, the moral 
 element would be lacking, however upright the 
 conduct. It is only under the polishing-wheel 
 that the diamond reveals its brilliancy. Man 
 is allowed to suffer from the violation of law 
 
IS MENTAL SCIENCE ENOUGH? 179 
 
 (which we call sin) in order that he may gain 
 knowledge, not only of those laws, but of a 
 power within himself to overcome — a power 
 that is one with Omnipotence and makes of 
 him a co-worker with the Infinite plan and 
 purpose : a god in embryo. All the promises 
 are given to him that overcometh. Then how 
 can we gain the palm, the robe, the new name, 
 the privilege to "go no more out" into earthly 
 embodiment, if there is no evil, nothing to 
 overcome, no chance to win the victor's 
 crown? Even the Christs are perfected 
 through suffering. Not that there is an ab- 
 solute element of evil, even though we recog- 
 nize it on the plane of existence; for that 
 which seems such to the finite mind is not evil 
 in the realm of the Infinite. Like the green 
 apple, it represents the best possible condition 
 before ripeness obtains. But in the moral 
 realm there must be a shadow; and if there 
 must be a seeming evil to test the efficacy of 
 good, then there must be in the existence of 
 error a divine purpose that should command 
 our recognition and respect. 
 
 Can you not imagine an archangel so pure 
 and exalted in celestial realms, so yearning 
 over those mortals now slowly climbing to- 
 ward the height he has won, that he would 
 
180 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 voluntarily decide to descend and become the 
 shadow of the One Great Light, which none 
 might perceive but for the dark background 
 his Christly sacrifice would provide? Thus 
 reads the legend of Lucifer, the fallen star, 
 a personality so erroneously maligned because 
 Isaiah, by bold metaphor, addressed the king 
 of Babylon thus : "How art thou fallen from 
 heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning" ; where- 
 upon Tertullian and Gregory the Great fast- 
 ened upon the conclusion that "Satan" was 
 meant by Lucifer — a mistake perpetuated and 
 immortalized by Milton in his "Paradise Lost." 
 But Lucifer is properly the designation of the 
 morning star, the Light-bearer, and this is 
 what so-called evil is — the Light-bringer, the 
 Light-producer after the conflict is past ; there- 
 fore, in the final analysis, all is Good. When 
 once the Light is perceived, all shadow of 
 human ignorance is replaced by knowledge, 
 bondage by freedom, temptation by victory. 
 The mission of the Christ was not to bear the 
 responsibility of our sins and errors for us, 
 but to increase our responsibility by showing 
 us the possibility and power of conquest. We 
 are to conquer the world and its unripeness, 
 not to flee from it or deny it away by denying 
 the existence of error. It is not necessary to 
 
IS MENTAL SCIENCE ENOUGH? 181 
 
 sacrifice one's common sense to become a met- 
 aphysician — or a psycho-physician, which is 
 a better word to represent an all-inclusive 
 work. Then — 
 
 "Shake hands with pain, give greetings unto grief— 
 Those angels in disguise; and thy glad soul 
 From height to height, from star to shining star, 
 Shall climb and claim blest immortality." 
 
 — an immortality to be consciously entered 
 upon, now and here. 
 
 It is always what a healer is in spiritual 
 consciousness and soul-unfoldment that de- 
 cides his power, rather than anything he does, 
 or says, or thinks and believes. The mind has 
 indeed power to cure or to kill; but to work 
 solely on mental levels, to search for and try 
 to "take up the right thought" as an antidote 
 to that particular phase of wrong thought 
 which the patient is holding, is not far re- 
 moved from the attempt of the medicine man 
 to decide on just the right composition of 
 drugs to hit a certain form of disorder. 
 
 Mind-healing, while most beneficent and 
 valuable, is always limited; there are some 
 cases that cannot be reached through vibra- 
 tions caused by the strongest and most en- 
 lightened thought. The work of the enfran- 
 chised spirit is boundless, since the truly 
 
182 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 spiritual healer annuls, so far as possible, his 
 own personality and mentality and serves as 
 effortless transmitter of the healing influx that 
 flows from the Great Spirit alone — thus reach- 
 ing the fainting spirit of the patient, binding 
 it back again in strong reunion with its Source, 
 divorcement from which is the only cause of 
 all illness, or prostration : the human sense of 
 separateness from that Divine Energy, that 
 all-pervasive Life which we call God. The 
 healer never heals: the patient regains his 
 birthright. 
 
 T and my Father are one." This is the only 
 infallible panacea for all suffering and unrest. 
 I, the minute spark, am enkindled from that 
 quenchless Flame whence Life is born. Dis- 
 ease cannot assail one whose feet are planted 
 on this rock, who feels momently the incoming 
 of this mighty tide, who has gained the con- 
 sciousness of impregnable divine union — the 
 pattern set for us by the Christ: "I and my 
 Father are one." With this conscious at-one- 
 ment, there would be small need of hunting 
 for jealousies, anger, or other mental foibles, 
 which are causative and undeniably create 
 bodily conditions ; but thought is only the 
 ripple on the surface of the vast ocean of Ideas 
 innate in the soul. 
 
IS MENTAL SCIENCE ENOUGH? 183 
 
 Is, then, Mental Science enough? Is any 
 one translation of truth enough while a 
 broader, clearer interpretation of Deity's 
 mighty message is possible? No Mental Sci- 
 entist is content to linger in the light of this 
 rosy dawn while the effulgence of cloudless 
 noon beckons him onward. We must out- 
 grow labels and narrow classifications — be 
 broadly open to every message of Wisdom, 
 even if it come from a source toward which 
 our attitude has been hitherto one of prejudice, 
 misunderstanding and scorn. Truth-seekers 
 should be eager to catch its every accent, 
 should be hospitable to its every phase — recep- 
 tive to all. The different pathways to the goal 
 are all necessary and full of beautiful altruistic 
 service to humanity. But let us make those 
 paths broad, open to every avenue of truth, 
 radiant with the light of inspiration, by which 
 a grand, comprehensive development shall be 
 insured for each individual worker. 
 
 My prayer would voice the fearless senti- 
 ment of one of our nation's heroes : "Give me 
 liberty" — the broadest freedom to grow in 
 every direction, to use my spiritual eyes and 
 ears, to unfold and wield each psychic gift 
 and attribute ; I might even claim the blessed 
 privilege to co-operate in my efforts for hu- 
 
184 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 manity with wise, grand souls no longer fet- 
 tered by the flesh, as are we ; then give me this 
 "liberty or give me death. If this be treason" 
 — if this be heresy — "make the most of it." 1 
 
 *A11 New Thought leaders would accept the 
 "heresy."— Ed. 
 
XVII 
 CRITICISMS OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 BY HENRY WOOD 
 
 [The following is condensed from a letter to the 
 Editor of the Boston Transcript, July 27, 1901, an- 
 swering a critic of the New Thought.] 
 
 The article in the Transcript entitled "Chaff 
 in 'New Thought' Wheat," though devoted 
 particularly to chaff, uncovered some good 
 grains of wheat. The critic would hardly be 
 a critic if he did not discover what he was 
 looking for. Chaff is essential in the produc- 
 tion of wheat, and is therefore an inevitable 
 accompaniment in its growing stages. Not 
 until it has "gone to seed" is the chaff fully 
 eliminated, and the New Thought is far from 
 having reached that finished condition. Not 
 only new institutions, but old and even good 
 ones contain a portion of chaff. It is like the 
 background in a picture, useful as a contrast- 
 ing accessory. Everything has its husk, and 
 it may be assumed that the very process of 
 separation emphasizes the preciousness of the 
 pure grain. But it is a question of proportion ! 
 185 
 
186 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 and is it not possible that the writer slightly 
 overdid the matter of chaff? 
 
 I would be the last to deny that extrava- 
 gances and even excrescences have attached 
 themselves in some measure to the New 
 Thought. But they form no part of its vital 
 principles, and are only incidental accretions 
 which are common to all new movements in 
 their initial stages. Aside from its therapeu- 
 tic possibilities, as proved by numerous prac- 
 tical demonstrations, it embodies a great and 
 general reaction against the prevailing mate- 
 rialism which has characterized the closing 
 part of the nineteenth century. Reactions may 
 go too far, but they soon regulate themselves 
 from within. By a subtle evolutionary selec- 
 tion the truth inevitably comes to the surface. 
 
 Some of the points made by our able con- 
 tributor make it appear that she is hardly 
 familiar with the broader and more rational 
 aspects of the new philosophy. It must be 
 borne in mind that this is no cult, in the sense 
 of having any central authoritative creed or 
 specific formulated system. If so, criticism 
 could be more definite. It is rather a great 
 spontaneous trend, an impersonal movement. 
 It is free from dogmatism, and so permeated 
 by an evolutionary optimism that it sees the 
 
CRITICISMS OF NEW THOUGHT 187 
 
 good even in everything and everybody which 
 most actively opposes it. 
 
 In the article under review, it is assumed 
 that the "All-is-spirit" philosophy properly be- 
 longs to the New Thought. Among a some- 
 what extensive acquaintance with its most 
 prominent exponents I know of none who 
 hold such a view. Matter is regarded as ex- 
 pressive, secondary, and resultant, but by no 
 means as unreal. In its proper place and re- 
 lation it is good and useful. Man is the normal 
 and rightful executive of his physical organ- 
 ism, and not its subordinate, nor the slave of 
 its sensations. But progress in this rational 
 adjustment is admittedly gradual, in accord 
 with well-understood spiritual law. This law 
 is scientific ; but, owing to the submerging ma- 
 terialism of generations, no one at present can 
 perfectly utilize it. 
 
 \ word upon "repulsion." Is there not 
 enough of it without any further endorsement 
 or cultivation? Is it not responsible for all 
 the wars, conflicts, hatred, and selfishness in 
 the world? The law of human solidarity is 
 now recognized as the future ideal and inspira- 
 tion. Only the cultivation of oneness of feel- 
 ing will hasten the consummation. 
 
 The New Thought should be no fad, hobby, 
 
188 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 or narrow unrelated theory. If not confirmed 
 by experience, analogy, and well-ascertained 
 spiritual law, it will shortly go the way of 
 all error. To be of practical value, any truth 
 must be wrought into daily life. The spiritual 
 basis of all things is more and more in evi- 
 dence, and the general trend of scientific de- 
 velopment and discovery is distinctly in this 
 direction. 
 
 The New Thought legitimately contains no 
 shadows of asceticism or morbid other-world- 
 liness. . . . All growth is from within out- 
 ward, and not from external accretion. The 
 divine processes of nature are vital and not 
 mechanical. The incubus of materialism has 
 weighed heavily upon science, ethics, theology, 
 and sociology; but they are surely emerging. 
 
 External organization is but little depended 
 upon for the spread of the new movement. It 
 is not aggressive, not a sect, and no rival to 
 existing religious organizations, but rather 
 vitalizing and complementary. Its rapid prog- 
 ress is in the nature of an esoteric leaven, 
 transforming without observation. Therefore, 
 the great magnitude of the movement is quite 
 unappreciated by the general public. 
 
 The evolution of the higher life is in per- 
 fect correspondence with unfolding principles 
 
CRITICISMS OF NEW THOUGHT 189 
 
 upon the lower planes. The spiritual is the 
 lawful upper zone of man's nature. Any in- 
 version of this relation produces discord. 
 When, in the ruling consciousness the ideal 
 order is set up, the change is expressed and 
 indexed in the external man. The cultivation 
 of an inner supremacy is as normal as the 
 growth of a tree, and involves nothing that is 
 strange. 
 
 Outcroppings of "miraculous" or "super- 
 natural" healing continually occur in response 
 to the compelling force of superstition and 
 credulity, but the modus operandi is unrecog- 
 nized. If mental action with such a basis 
 possesses so much energy, what about an in- 
 telligent basis of truth? Surely, the moral 
 order has not put a premium on superstition. 
 . . . Only an orderly interpretation of ad- 
 mitted facts is what is lacking. Electricity 
 has laws, and through conformity therewith 
 we utilize it. Is it not our privilege to so 
 employ the beneficent forces of mind and 
 spirit? ... It should not be forgotten that 
 the inherent beauty and power of the New 
 Thought must be subjective and experimental, 
 in order to be appreciated; for no mere in- 
 tellectual survey, from the outside, will reveal 
 them. 
 
190 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 [The following, from "The New Thought and 
 Common Sense," contributed by Mr. Wood to The 
 Higher Law, Boston, June, 1900, also answers the 
 usual criticism.] 
 
 Much ill-founded and unnecessary prejudice 
 is aroused against the higher philosophy of 
 life by unqualified statements which are be- 
 yond present conditions and above the view- 
 point of ordinary observers. The claim of 
 extravagant present realizations often comes 
 from well-meant but in reality hyper-en- 
 thusiasm. 
 
 Extremes always beget opposing extremes. 
 High abstract propositions are abstractly cor- 
 rect, and under favoring conditions in the fu- 
 ture will be demonstrable. But to affirm them 
 positively to one who does not understand 
 idealism, without discriminative interpreta- 
 tion, is unwise. The greatest of human 
 teachers voiced this sentiment in exact terms. 
 
 That the primary causes for physical con- 
 ditions are inherently mental is true, but it 
 does not follow that the body can be changed 
 "while you wait" by a superficial change in 
 the mind. Logic is good, but it is subject to 
 abuse. Because a man can lift three hundred 
 pounds it does not follow that he can lift three 
 thousand, even though the principle be the 
 
CRITICISMS OF NEW THOUGHT 191 
 
 same. Idealistic statements, true in a certain 
 sense and of great utility when understood, 
 may be harmful and repulsive when made to 
 a "realist" ; for to him they are lies. 
 
 As a consequence of general erroneous im- 
 pressions regarding the claims of the present 
 evolution of metaphysics, the New Thought, 
 there is probably hardly a writer or teacher 
 of the principles of mental causation who has 
 not often had presented a supposed "poser" 
 something as follows: "How about poisons, 
 stimulants and contagions?" 
 
 The few suggestions here presented are 
 designed for the benefit of extremists on both 
 sides. Let the advocates of a practical ideal- 
 ism on their part remember that but few 
 occupy their standpoint. Ideals are abstract 
 realities now ; their outward actualization 
 must be gradual and this should always be 
 made clear. If Paul attained such a spiritual 
 consciousness and control as to render the bite 
 of a viper harmless, it does not follow that 
 every one who has started in the New Thought 
 can or should cultivate the intimacy of that 
 kind of a reptile. Can every writer be a 
 Shakespeare or every speaker a Demosthenes ? 
 The law of spiritual accomplishment may in- 
 clude perfect immunity from harmful viper 
 
192 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 bites; but only the rarely developed expert 
 can grasp it, the law, as an efficient weapon 
 and wield it, the force, with perfect dexterity. 
 But the degree to which each one can utilize 
 it will ever grow toward his ideal, even though 
 on the present plane of existence he may never 
 reach it. Let one's responses to sceptical in- 
 quiries always be fitted to the questioner's 
 plane of observation. 
 
 Turning briefly to those who think the well- 
 known effects of poisons, stimulants, and con- 
 tagions disprove the law of mental causation, 
 and hold that their physical phenomena are 
 due to chemical or direct potency per se, let 
 us reason together a little below the surface. 
 
 The physical body, one second after it has 
 been laid aside by the conscious and subcon- 
 scious man or mind (a process called death), 
 is utterly unresponsive to poisons, stimulants 
 and contagions. May it not be fairly inferred 
 that former responsiveness came through the 
 subconscious mind rather than merely by di- 
 rect physical contact? The principle in the 
 case was clearly the seeming intermediary. 
 While immediately after "death" all the phys- 
 ical constituents remain intact, that through 
 which outside agencies — as occasions — gained 
 their potency has been removed. In other 
 
CRITICISMS OF NEW THOUGHT 193 
 
 words, the cause has gone. Causes and oc- 
 casions must be discriminated. The former 
 are always within, and, expressed in a common 
 term, may be called susceptibility. Occasions 
 are from without, and are only convenient 
 opportunities. They have no absolute power 
 as entities, and can only exert such an in- 
 fluence as susceptibility has conferred upon 
 them. But, to man's personal sense, suscep- 
 tibility has installed itself as that which has 
 laws of its own; and he is their subject and 
 victim. 
 
 Suppose that ten persons are equally ex- 
 posed to smallpox. Two respond to it, and 
 eight do not. To the eight who did not "take 
 it," it was not a contagion at all, but simply 
 a nonentity. The two who presented a fertile 
 and ready-made soil had unwittingly produced 
 susceptibility. Through the subtle processes of 
 the imaging faculty, man — for himself — is a 
 creator. Disease, therefore, is his own con- 
 trivance. He has erected certain limits, which, 
 though not in the moral economy, he calls 
 laws, and is obliged to do them homage. This 
 is illustrated in many places where the prin- 
 ciple is never suspected. 
 
 A certain immunity from smallpox doubt- 
 less comes from vaccination. In reality, the 
 
194 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 operation is a contrivance which tells upon 
 the subconscious mind. There is an abiding 
 inner sense of protection from the disorder. 
 Whenever the attention of the conscious mind 
 is called to the subject, a spontaneous auto- 
 suggestion of immunity wells up from within. 
 It amounts to a kind of steady, hidden faith, 
 and is reinforced by surrounding belief and 
 acceptance. The clay of the body is but the 
 passive and expressive incident in the transac- 
 tion. But its psychological elements are, of 
 course, a terra incognita to the medical prac- 
 titioner who performs the "operation." If 
 water could be surreptitiously substituted, the 
 inoculation would be much more safe and 
 cleanly and equally effective. . . . 
 
 To lessen general and even personal respon- 
 siveness to poisons, stimulants, and contagions, 
 is a gradual and seemingly very slow work, 
 as we count time. It is entirely a question of 
 degree or of susceptibility transformed by al- 
 most imperceptible stages. But, until the time 
 does arrive when the widely subjective law of 
 their potency is positively repealed, common 
 sense would indicate that they be let alone. 
 
 The germs of disease have no power per se, 
 but an inviting and fertile soil on every hand 
 confers potency upon them. Quarantines are 
 
CRITICISMS OF NEW THOUGHT 195 
 
 therefore necessary so long as the present 
 state of collective consciousness regarding 
 germ-causation continues. The foregoing 
 hints may aid some inquirers in the way of 
 an intelligent discrimination between real 
 causes and frequent occasions, and show that 
 strict metaphysical principles are thoroughly 
 logical and in accord with common sense. . . . 
 
 [The following is condensed from an essay on 
 "Environment" written for The Higher Law, Octo- 
 ber, 1901, in response to a frequently stated criticism 
 of the New Thought, namely, that it ignores man's 
 natural environment.] 
 
 An elastic subject truly! It may compass 
 but a human mood, or it may include all "out- 
 doors." Perhaps the term does not stand for 
 quite the same to any two individuals, so that 
 some attempt at definition is necessary in order 
 to find common ground. 
 
 If we stretch environment to the utmost, 
 it may take in the entire cosmos, outside of 
 self. . . . The sum total that can be contained 
 in the individual consciousness is made up of 
 the ego and the non-ego. . . . The individual 
 is the actor ; while, in general, all else is acted 
 upon. Relatively, he is positive, while en- 
 vironment, with an exception noted later, is 
 
196 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 negative. But yet there is reciprocity. In a 
 sense what is objective reacts, or, literally, 
 acts back. Action from the center is normally 
 intelligent and subject to self-control; but con- 
 ventionally, reaction from without is assumed 
 to be beyond guidance. Just here is found the 
 vital significance and heart of the new phi- 
 losophy, as distinguished from the thought of 
 the past. Can we in considerable degree shape 
 reaction, or must we take it as it comes? 
 Every man has an environment ; and now 
 what will he do with it? Will he dominate 
 it or be its subject? And, if the former, how 
 can he bring it into adjustment? Although 
 no two environments are quite alike, the proc- 
 ess of control — if control there is to be — must 
 be one and the same. 
 
 "Everything is against me," says one : "all 
 things work together for my good," says an- 
 other. In themselves the things in each case 
 may be quite alike, but in relative realization 
 both . . . views may be correct. Can we, 
 then, dictate to environment as to how it shall 
 act back? If so, it logically follows that we 
 are its potential creators. . . . We need con- 
 tinually to bear in mind that the objective, 
 the physical world without is elastic, respon- 
 sive material. It is not made up of the hard 
 
CRITICISMS OF NEW THOUGHT 197 
 
 angles of fate or the solid surface of events; 
 but, viewed more deeply, is in a state of flux. 
 It is the melted wax awaiting the seal, or 
 the soft clay inviting the cunning hand of the 
 potter. 
 
 The ego is the vital center of a system of 
 wires, stretching out in every direction; and 
 over them vibrations are ceaselessly going and 
 coming. Everything, be it person or circum- 
 stance, star or flower, heat or cold, is trans- 
 mitting its message. Can we in any degree 
 transmute or modify its quality? 
 
 Let us state a law which may seem some- 
 what abstract, and then consider to what ex- 
 tent it may be wrought into concrete living. 
 Our incoming messages, in quality and tone, 
 will be duplicates or echoes of those which we 
 send out — love for love, hate for hate, joy for 
 joy — a mirror-like reflection. If we dislike 
 a person, the sight or even the thought of him 
 distinctly repeats it back. . . . Environment 
 for many generations having seemed like a 
 fixed quantity, can be practically transmuted 
 only by degrees. But the fact that it can only 
 be changed through growth does not invalidate 
 the divine law. We have built up a sensuous 
 law to the contrary, and our emancipation 
 must be gradual. It is best that it should be 
 
198 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 so. Every accomplishment comes through 
 education and cannot be poured in, in the mass. 
 
 What about our human environment? In 
 a word, life touches us on every side. It is 
 not mere lives, of individuals, but a solidarity. 
 . . . The ideal of our consciousness of human 
 environment seems to be that all men should 
 see themselves in others — "you in me, and I 
 in you." 
 
 Take . . . our own subconscious realm. 
 Here is a fertile and prolific field where we 
 are both sowing and reaping every day. It 
 lies just before us ; and we cannot turn away 
 our gaze from it, even if we would. It only 
 need be noted that we create its quality, and 
 this is a matter of supreme importance. 
 
 Our brief survey would be incomplete with- 
 out a positive recognition of the transcendent 
 and crowning Reality. It is not irreverent or 
 pantheistic to hold that God is the spiritual 
 totality of our environment. The greatest 
 thought that can be contained in the human 
 consciousness is its relation with the Infinite. 
 What an expansion in this concept in the 
 recent past ! The tribal, the national, the an- 
 thropomorphic, and the far-away deities are 
 outgrown ideals ; and God "in whom we live, 
 and move, and have our being" is the present 
 
CRITICISMS OF NEW THOUGHT 199 
 
 and future inspiration. But with this last ideal 
 we must beware of any dilution of the divine 
 character, which is transcendent Wisdom, 
 Goodness, and Love. Divinity is positive. 
 God must not be sentimentalized or cheapened 
 in consciousness, but lifted higher. While He 
 is in and back of all things, it would be pan- 
 theism to say that everything — as we behold 
 it — is God. Immanence and transcendence are 
 complementary aspects. To rate Him as 
 "principle," as that term is generally under- 
 stood, is unworthy; and such a concept will 
 never fill the void in the human constitution. 
 God is God ; and "principle," "ether," "cosmos" 
 will not define Him. 1 While, therefore, in a 
 sense, He has the relation of environment, 
 He is incomparable with any other of its 
 classifications. He is active : they are passive. 
 He is positive ; they are negative. We impress 
 them, the other parts of our environment, but 
 receive impress from Him. We project our 
 ideals upon them, but are to be consciously 
 moulded by our ideal of Him. However un- 
 
 1 Mr. Wood here wisely avoids the two extremes 
 approached by later New Thought devotees, some 
 of whom say unqualifiedly — perhaps thoughtlessly — 
 "I am God"; while others, borrowing from "Chris- 
 tian Science," reduce the idea of God to that of an 
 impersonal "principle." — Ed. 
 
200 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 knowable He may be in the abstract, our 
 highest ideals of Him represent Him to us, 
 and, with ever-expanding measure, must be 
 a finality. These are always above our pres- 
 ent level of realization, and we are to be plastic 
 to them. Our relation with the divine is 
 therefore unlike that which is existent with 
 all other parts of our environment. In more 
 general terms, we should be negative, or re- 
 ceptive, toward everything which is con- 
 sciously above us, and positive toward all else. 
 The opposite poles of man's being thus work 
 together in the accomplishment of his spiritual 
 evolution. All environment is auxiliary, if 
 relation be rightly adjusted. 
 
 [Granted that our environment is, to us, largely 
 what we believe it to be; and that suggestion can 
 foster faith in vaccination, in medicines of various 
 sorts, the question would still hold over, What of 
 those forces, in the environment we call "nature," 
 which operate according to precise laws, ascertain- 
 able by physics and chemistry, regardless of all 
 human suggestions whatsoever? Does suggestion 
 really change anything in nature, or merely offset 
 certain otherwise inevitable effects for the moment? 
 —Ed.] 
 
XVIII 
 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE 
 
 BY ANNETTA G. DRESSER 
 
 [The author of the following selections was under 
 Mr. Quimby's care as a patient, in Portland, in 
 1863, and has recounted her experience in The 
 Philosophy of P. P. Quimby, 1895. The first selec- 
 tion is from an article contributed to The Higher 
 Law, January, 1900.] 
 
 Years ago, when Mr. Quimby said in his 
 writings and to his patients, "The time will 
 come when goodness will be taught as a 
 science," the statement seemed a strange one. 
 In the light of the present understanding of 
 the effect of thought one has a glimmering of 
 what this science will be — the science of hope, 
 of charity, faith, all that constitutes goodness 
 in the truest sense. 1 
 
 To understand this science, it is necessary 
 to know what the inner process is when hope, 
 love, charity, is practically lived and used as 
 a remedy for ills, spiritual and physical. 
 
 1 Quimby's term was, "The Science of Life and 
 Happiness." — Ed. 
 
 201 
 
202 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 Spoken of as a science, one is apt to think of 
 it at first as cold and impersonal: whereas, 
 when rightly understood, it is found to bring 
 warmth and life into all sciences, whether it 
 be astronomy or chemistry. Like these, it is 
 as exact and accurate in its application as 
 mathematics ; and it was this perception which 
 made Quimby say that "even a little child 
 could be taught to know the law." 
 
 We are so exquisitely constructed that every 
 movement in the mind, a thought in one di- 
 rection or another, sets up vibrations within 
 us as quickly and as surely as an seolian harp 
 responds to a breath of wind. Let us consider 
 this for a moment. If it is true that a direc- 
 tion of mind has this effect, has not the time 
 come to study into these things more con- 
 scientiously and deeply, in order to understand 
 the entire process as an exact science? All 
 progressive thinkers know something of the 
 effect of thought upon the body. They under- 
 stand its effect to a certain point in daily life, 
 and many are healed through the practice of 
 right thinking. This, however, is a surface 
 consideration in comparison to what I desire 
 to make plain. Since any hopeful thought 
 produces certain and partial effects, many are 
 satisfied to stop there. But in a great emer- 
 
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE 203 
 
 gency they are left to the mercies of the 
 world's beliefs and practices. They toss about 
 from hope to despair, from faith to doubt, 
 because they have not gone deeply enough into 
 the philosophy to know why and how faith 
 or hope can effect certain results. 
 
 It is the same law of action and reaction 
 that proves itself to us in other ways. We 
 need, however, to push the question far enough 
 to give "a reason for the faith that is in us." 
 Without this only surface work can be done. 
 With it, one knows the way, step by step, 
 until gradually the time will come when 
 "greater works" can be done because we "know 
 the Father." 
 
 The chemist, in order to produce a certain 
 quality, puts together by precise weight or 
 measurement certain materials. There is no 
 uncertainty about it : he knows what to expect, 
 what will result from the combination. Some 
 of these chemical changes are very mild in 
 their action — a little effervescence or other 
 chemical change takes place by the union of 
 two or more substances. This illustrates the 
 effect upon the delicate ethereal substance in 
 the body that lies next to thought, 1 when a 
 
 1 That is, the substance called "spiritual matter," 
 by Quimby. — Ed. 
 
204 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 change of current is caused by a new direction 
 of mind. All that is needed to make a slight 
 chemical change in the body is a hopeful turn 
 of mind. This is the first step in the right di- 
 rection, the two and two that make four, the 
 simple problem in the science of life. 
 
 Is the process understood even in this early 
 stage? If not, the teacher and healer should 
 seek to understand it. If the starting point is 
 thoroughly understood, one can then go on 
 figuring out one's problems with a faith and 
 a trust in the deeper processes, just as the 
 chemist uses more powerful ingredients to pro- 
 duce the dangerous explosives. The chemist 
 does not venture to experiment with danger- 
 ous compounds until he has carefully studied 
 along the way, for he knows what mighty 
 forces he is handling. The wonderful proc- 
 esses that go on within us can be understood 
 from these earlier experiences on to deeper 
 ones, and can be controlled as conscientiously 
 and carefully as the chemist handles his 
 materials. 
 
 This introductory process might better be 
 compared to the experiences of the beginner 
 in violin playing. He knows that his instru- 
 ment vibrates just according to the handling 
 of the bow and the touch upon the strings. 
 
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE 205 
 
 He can make either harmonious or discordant 
 sounds. But, if he is wise, he does not attempt 
 much beyond his knowledge. He works on 
 patiently and carefully, knowing that he will 
 be able to make the delicate shading and ex- 
 quisite music only through persistent effort 
 with abundant faith in the science of music. 
 
 The time is coming when our spiritual per- 
 ceptions will become so quickened that a prac- 
 titioner in spiritual healing will know as surely 
 what changes are taking place deep within the 
 human body as the surgeon when he lays bare 
 the delicate tissues and binds up the cords and 
 nerves. 
 
 This does not mean that we are not to take 
 things on trust in our daily lives, and have a 
 faith beyond our practice. If this were so, 
 one would lose very much in the unfolding 
 of the soul. It means those who are ignorant 
 of the marvelous changes which take place 
 under mental influences, who do not under- 
 stand the wonderful law of action and reac- 
 tion in the inner life, should not have the 
 responsibility they now have, that there should 
 be training schools for healers and teachers, 
 where they may be fitted to work according 
 to their understanding. Never will spiritual 
 healing and the wonderful inner workings of 
 
206 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 the human mind be understood until each stu- 
 dent is willing and ready to begin at the A, 
 B, C's, and work on carefully and wisely to 
 greater and greater results in their own lives 
 and in the healing of other's diseases. 
 
 One should become like a little child, start- 
 ing with the simplest effect produced by an 
 uplifting thought, and make sure that one 
 understands the reasons why certain effects 
 are produced. Then the healer assumes noth- 
 ing. He frankly admits his limitations; and, 
 so far as he goes, he stands on as substantial 
 a basis as the chemist. 
 
 What is the process effected by a change of 
 thought from a depressed to a hopeful atti- 
 tude? To answer this question satisfactorily, 
 one must start from the first principles of life, 
 and study involution and evolution. But to 
 suggest the first simple effects of an uplifting 
 thought, we may picture the following situa- 
 tion. A person is shut into a small dark room, 
 with no light except what comes from the 
 crack of a door ajar, opening into a large light 
 court. The person's back is turned to the 
 single ray of light. Suddenly he turns about, 
 discovers the source of the light, and moves 
 toward it. He may even open the door and 
 look out. Possibly he crosses the threshold, 
 
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE 207 
 
 out into the sunlight, and begins to reflect and 
 compare, and so becomes wise enough not 
 again to enter the dark room. So with the 
 soul imprisoned in the body. The doors are 
 opened a crack or closed by the action of mind, 
 the direction of thought. In the hopeful at- 
 titude a process is at once set up like that pro- 
 duced by the movement toward the open door. 
 
 The delicate and radiant matter that is the 
 nearest to thought expands, like a veil, becom- 
 ing thinner. The soul sees through the open- 
 ing. As this widens, the ever-resident Life 
 fills the space. Every particle responds to this 
 action. The gray matter of the brain sets up 
 different vibrations. The nerves respond to 
 this new life, and a chemical change begins. 
 
 Here is something to start with and depend 
 upon, something a beginner in the study of the 
 science can understand. From this beginning 
 one has a glimpse of the wonderful process of 
 the universe, so that a new light dawns upon 
 the mind in regard to the oneness of life. 
 This, indeed, is the science of sciences. This 
 is the essence of all understanding, an all- 
 embracing, warm, loving truth. It- is the first 
 realization of our oneness with a mighty force, 
 an inexhaustible supply of life, of health, faith, 
 hope, and charity. 
 
208 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 [The writer speaks from the point of view of many 
 years of experience with the sick, according to 
 Quimby's method, that is, the method of intuitive 
 diagnosis and the endeavor to understand the entire 
 condition of the patient, in contrast with mental 
 healers who, lacking this intuition, have depended 
 on affirmations. Many devotees of the New Thought 
 have, indeed, sought for a spiritual science of life. 
 But the tendency has been to take the clue from 
 abstractions, and ideals that may be realized in the 
 exceedingly distant future, in contrast with the clue 
 that may be found in actual knowledge of the real 
 situation, the present condition of the patient. The 
 above is also in contrast with a position held by 
 some of the New Thought writers who have never 
 had the qualifying experience of the actual healing 
 of the sick. That is, in its frank admission that 
 matter possesses chemical qualities. Nothing is 
 likely to be gained by regarding matter as devoid 
 of qualities save such as the mind attributes to it, 
 in the case of food, drugs, and poisons. The real 
 consideration is, granted the God-given qualities of 
 matter, chemical and physical, what is the best use 
 to which they may be put by man in his sure 
 knowledge of himself, his powers of thought, his 
 spiritual openness to divine power? It would be 
 dogmatic to insist that any one point of view 
 contains the whole truth, but it is at least instruc- 
 tive to contrast the above ideal of a science with 
 the belief that finite thought, depending on sugges- 
 tion, can practically ignore the laws and forces of 
 the natural world. The next selection from the 
 above writer continues the same point of view into 
 
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE 209 
 
 another field. It is condensed from The Higher 
 Law, March, 1900.] 
 
 Every person's judgment of another is 
 warped and colored by his own condition or 
 state of development. It is said that every 
 great soul is misunderstood. This must be 
 true, since the soul which has developed 
 beyond the masses perceives the truth from 
 another standpoint. His acts cannot be ap- 
 preciated by those who have not reached the 
 same level. It is like viewing a landscape from 
 a mountain top. Those who have never stood 
 on the same height criticize and misjudge 
 without knowledge. 
 
 Yet how hard it is for the one who is mis- 
 understood, before he has learned to have 
 charity through knowledge of the laws gov- 
 erning the growth of the soul ! Is it possible 
 to have charity for the undeveloped until one 
 understands involution and evolution in the 
 spiritual sense? Is it wise to expect another 
 to see things from our own standpoint, until 
 that one has unfolded into the same light? 
 Evidently there is no knowledge sufficient to 
 cover all cases of misjudgment, except the 
 scientific philosophy which gives the reasons 
 why one soul views everything from his own 
 
210 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 point of view, which is a little different from 
 that of any one else. 
 
 Oh, the heartaches to be relieved, the tears 
 to be wiped away, the misunderstandings to 
 be explained away ! No one is wholly free 
 from these hard experiences. We all mis- 
 judge and at times we are all misunderstood. 
 Even when one has learned the law and ex- 
 ercises love and charity, one must enter deeply 
 into one's own kingdom within, and gather 
 new strength and more love. One must see 
 both sides of a question before complete relief 
 comes. If it is a case where the misunder- 
 standing arises because one has reached a 
 higher state of development than the one who 
 has, through ignorance, uttered the unkind 
 word, one must realize that no one can see a 
 truth until one has come to judgment. 
 
 I question if any one can fully appreciate 
 the hindrances a soul meets in its unfolding 
 until one has studied the subjective life, until 
 one realizes through experience the mental 
 and physical forces through which the soul 
 struggles for freedom. Shut into its prison, 
 what can be expected of a soul, when that 
 prison is a body composed of such materials 
 as those which constitute the average man? 
 It is no wonder that very few can bear op- 
 
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE 211 
 
 position or dictation without excitement or 
 anger. The slightest stirring of such atoms 
 is sufficient to cause disturbance. The soul 
 cannot see through the density surrounding it. 
 When a man feels the pressure of these excited 
 particles, he cannot control his sensations. If 
 he is pushed to the wall, he retaliates accord- 
 ing to his state of density and activity. 
 
 How often would we say of the murderer, 
 "Forgive him; he knows not what he does," 
 if we knew the make-up of his body and the 
 darkness of the prison within! Such a man 
 does not know what he is or what he is doing. 
 If we knew the true situation in every differ- 
 ence of opinion, we would have consideration 
 and charity. Never would we condemn. 
 
 Remember, then, that each man does the 
 best he can under the immediate, existing cir- 
 cumstance. Just when he yields to temptation, 
 the forces are too strong for him. This is be- 
 cause he is ignorant of those forces. Given 
 another minute, perhaps, just time enough to 
 think, and he would have gained a victory. 
 
 On the other side, if one feels that one has 
 attained a degree of development beyond 
 others who have misjudged or who seek to 
 control, if it is true spiritual development, one 
 has that true humility which refuses to admit 
 
212 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 any superiority over the other. One can feel 
 a sorrow and a desire to help, but there is a 
 breadth of comprehension which forbids con- 
 troversy. One knows the other soul is just 
 as pure, just as whole ; but it has not yet come 
 to consciousness in this direction. 
 
 If the father and mother cannot sympathize 
 with the advanced ideas the daughter has im- 
 bibed, they may suffer as much in their fears 
 for the safety of the loved one, even more, 
 perhaps, than the daughter in her loneliness, 
 in her longing to have her parents receive the 
 new light. But the daughter has this advan- 
 tage : she knows she is progressing out of the 
 old bondage into a broader and freer life. 
 With this knowledge comes, or ought to come, 
 such an understanding of the situation that 
 she cannot be misunderstood without feeling 
 hurt, with a sweetness and quietness that will 
 convince her parents of the truth she has 
 gained. How little we know of righteous 
 judgment, after all! 
 
 We wonder why a friend has withdrawn 
 from active work in a society or club. We 
 judge him from what we see and hear. We 
 may not know that he is passing through a 
 phase of life which requires all of his concen- 
 trated efforts, in order to overcome certain 
 
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE 213 
 
 conditions, that for a time he must live away 
 from activities and friends. He knows that 
 he is misunderstood ; but he must bear it, even 
 if he loses the sympathy and help that a friend 
 might give if the situation were understood. 
 But, if the friends only knew what cannot 
 be told, how different would be their attitude 
 toward him, how different their thoughts and 
 words ! 
 
 We must be willing — yes, even happy — if 
 we are misunderstood. Sometimes it is be- 
 cause of our higher and deeper insights into 
 life. Sometimes our motives cannot be known. 
 
 Our friend has only a partial view of the 
 situation. He puts an entirely wrong inter- 
 pretation on the case. Even here we can be 
 calm and trusting; for he is not to blame, he 
 did not know. He did as well as he could at 
 the time. 
 
 In every case, be the mistaken judgment on 
 one side or the other, one cannot err on the 
 side of charity. Wait! Suspend your opin- 
 ion! Remember that the walls are thick and 
 dense which surround the soul: it cannot see 
 through except by a gradual unfolding into 
 the light. We are all moving on together ; and 
 the only logical view of the situation is to live 
 in the outcome of every experience with a 
 
214 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 faith and trust in the Infinite Love, which can 
 be relied on as surely as the law of gravitation. 
 It is because we fail to perceive that the law 
 of love is perfect that we have our disturb- 
 ances and misunderstandings. To trust it im- 
 plicitly, to wait, have no condemnation, means 
 freedom for the soul and emancipation from 
 misjudgments. 
 
 [Comparing the cardinal statements of the fore- 
 going with the propositions laid down by Mr. Wood 
 in the preceding chapter, we find the writer acknowl- 
 edging the facts of physics and chemistry, and look- 
 ing beyond these to the ideal of a higher science, 
 one that shall be based on facts, in contrast with 
 mere affirmations. These contentions suggest the 
 importance of more thorough psychological study, 
 if mental healing shall be put upon a scientifically 
 secure basis. On the other hand, some devotees 
 of the New Thought would doubtless say that Mrs. 
 Dresser comes very near determinism in her teach- 
 ing that people do as well as they can under the 
 circumstances; and the New Thought is unques- 
 tionably belief in freedom. Yet if we add the com- 
 plementary truth that man is morally and spiritually 
 free, despite the conditions of his mental life and 
 of his moral environment, we find all the more 
 reason for the far-reaching charity advocated above. 
 In any case there is reason to avoid all condemnation. 
 This belief in the essential goodness of man, this 
 charitable quest for the good in all men, is surely 
 the very "Spirit of the New Thought."] 
 
XIX 
 
 THE METAPHYSICAL MOVEMENT 
 
 [From a statement issued by the Metaphysical 
 Club, Boston, in The Higher Law, November, 1901.] 
 
 The Metaphysical Movement, popularly 
 known as the New Thought, is the result of 
 an earnest search for truth, wherever it may 
 be found, in a spirit that is non-sectarian, in- 
 clusive, and constructive. Fearlessly ques- 
 tioning the authority imputed to any dogma, 
 creed, or person, it is a sincere attempt to dis- 
 cover the best in the wisdom of the ages, and 
 to thus formulate a philosophy of life that 
 shall be fundamental and at the same time 
 practical. This philosophy must regard all 
 the facts of life as we find them in the uni- 
 verse. At the same time it must have some 
 great reality for its basis ; and it must be ap- 
 plicable to the various phases and experiences 
 of the busy, active life of man in this present 
 world. 
 
 The most important and distinguishing 
 215 
 
216 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 teaching of the New Thought philosophy is 
 that ideals are realities, and that all primary 
 causes are internal forces. As God is in His 
 world, and not external to it, the ever-creative 
 Mind, of which the material universe is the 
 visible word, so the great truth runs through 
 everything that mind is primary and causative, 
 while matter is secondary and resultant. 
 Every material form is the outward expression 
 of some inward quality, which is spiritual. 
 In the mineral, the vegetable, and the animal 
 worlds there is something within each species 
 that perpetuates it after its kind. In the hu- 
 man species, the highest form of creation, 
 there is not only the animal life, which can 
 reproduce itself after its kind: there is be- 
 stowed upon man a mind and a soul, with 
 powers of thought, of reasoning, and of as- 
 piration, which may transcend and transform 
 and glorify the animal nature. To him is 
 given the privilege to share in that divine proc- 
 ess which is ever working to bring into mani- 
 festation more and more of the beautiful, the 
 good, and the true. Through right thoughts 
 and right ideals, man may so harmonize his 
 life with the divine plan that there shall ever 
 come to him a fuller measure of those external 
 conditions which we may believe belong to a 
 
METAPHYSICAL MOVEMENT 217 
 
 true human life in this present world, among 
 which are health, happiness, peace, prosperity, 
 and power for righteousness. 
 
 The New Thought teaching, then, is that the 
 children of men are living souls now, children 
 of God. The first lesson we need to learn is 
 this. The first step we need to take toward 
 a fuller and freer life is to get this conscious- 
 ness of ourselves as spiritual beings, citizens 
 of a divine universe. It was said of old that, 
 "as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." 
 Once get the spiritual consciousness into our 
 minds and hearts and square our daily think- 
 ing to it, and then, as effect follows cause by 
 an unalterable law, so will our physical and 
 social and external lives reveal and manifest 
 the conditions that belong to the human life 
 of God. With the renewal of the ideas that 
 are the continual substance of our thoughts 
 there begins a transformation that affects the 
 whole being. As pictures of diseases and fail- 
 ure and death are banished, life and confidence 
 and health take their places. All the bodily 
 processes respond to a new feeling in the 
 soul ; all the energies are quickened by a new 
 conception of the source of life and power; 
 and we have a scientific demonstration of the 
 truth which was tersely stated in that simple 
 
218 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 and plain saying of Jesus : "Seek ye first the 
 kingdom of God and His righteousness, and 
 all these things shall be added unto you." 
 
 As a method of healing bodily disease, as 
 a cure for social ills, as a philosophy of life, 
 the New Thought stands squarely on the be- 
 lief that the remedy for all defect and dis- 
 order is metaphysical, beyond the physical, in 
 the realm of causes, which are mental and 
 spiritual. It boldly and confidently makes the 
 claim that, since we are spiritual beings, the 
 source of our life is in God; and it comes 
 forth from Him pure and sound and healthful. 
 To be as explicit as possible, the New Thought 
 does not deny the existence of the body. On 
 the contrary, it would honor and glorify the 
 body as the instrument of an immortal soul. 
 To the soul belong life and health, and by this 
 realization and belief the body may be restored 
 from sickness or kept from disease. Neither 
 does the New Thought deny sickness and 
 pain. 1 It recognizes that they are facts of 
 life, but it holds that they are not positive 
 realities. They are rather negative conditions, 
 the lack of ease, of harmony, of health. They 
 are disturbances brought into the naturally 
 
 1 Thus it is distinguished from Christian Science. 
 
 -Ed. 
 
METAPHYSICAL MOVEMENT 219 
 
 harmonious life which rightfully belongs to 
 the human race. 
 
 Out of our own experience we know that 
 anger, fear, worry, hate, revenge, avarice, 
 grief — in fact, all negative and low emotions 
 — produce weakness and disturbance, not only 
 in the mind, but in the body as well. It has 
 been proved that they actually generate poi- 
 sons in the body, they depress the circulation ; 
 they change the quality of the blood, making 
 it less vital ; they affect the great nerve-centers, 
 and thus partially paralyze the very seat of 
 the bodily activities. On the other hand, faith, 
 hope, love, joy, and peace, all emotions that 
 are positive and uplifting, so act on the body 
 as to restore and maintain harmony and actu- 
 ally to stimulate the circulation and nutrition. 
 The heart beats strong and true when love 
 and trust fill the mind. The breathing is deep 
 when confidence and faith are present. The 
 great solar plexus is full of life-giving cur- 
 rents when we are inspired by an abiding 
 knowledge that "in Him we live, and move, 
 and have our being." 
 
 As with bodily diseases, so with social ills : 
 there can be no true reform in the body politic 
 until each individual establishes right relations 
 with his fellows by a correct mental attitude. 
 
220 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 Armaments and legislative enactments are in 
 vain as long as hatred and injustice and greed 
 are in the heart. The remedy is not new; 
 but it has been taken up with a new emphasis 
 by the advocates of metaphysical methods of 
 reform. We were told ages ago that our 
 highest duty was to do justice and love mercy. 
 We know the Golden Rule, "Whatsoever ye 
 would that men should do to you do ye even 
 so to them.' , But somehow there has come 
 to us a new conception of the oneness of all 
 mankind. We understand, as never before, 
 that we are members one of another. We 
 know that we are all bound up together in a 
 unity of life and a community of interests that 
 cannot be disregarded and outraged. We have 
 discovered that what is done to one is done to 
 all, and that the suffering of the one class is 
 borne by the other. A new thought has come 
 to us also about the drawing power of our 
 true life. Silently, but surely, its influence 
 goes out to many, and so in some measure to 
 all. We have a new realization, too, of the 
 responsiveness of every soul, no matter how 
 sinful it may seem. The sympathetic touch 
 of a loving heart, the quickening power of a 
 brother's trust, are forces as sure as gravita- 
 tion. This new knowledge and new thought 
 
METAPHYSICAL MOVEMENT 221 
 
 give us courage and faith, and point the way 
 to the true methods of social reform. 
 
 As a philosophy of life, the New Thought 
 takes for its fundamental reality the idea of 
 God as an immanent, indwelling spirit; All- 
 wisdom, All-goodness, ever present in the uni- 
 verse as a warm and tender Father, and not 
 as a cold abstraction. If this statement be 
 true, then evil can have no place in the world 
 as a permanent reality and power. It is not 
 denied that it exists now, but only as an ac- 
 companiment of incompleteness. It must be 
 a negative quantity, the absence of good, as 
 darkness is the absence of light. But in 
 man's erroneous conception it is distorted and 
 clothed with power and reality. In the phi- 
 losophy of the New Thought, pain, suffering, 
 and so-called misfortune are educative, reveal- 
 ing to us our inharmonious relation to the 
 divine law. Sin and moral evil are largely an 
 ignorant selfishness, — ignorant of an Al- 
 mighty Love under whose divine providence 
 all things work together for good to those 
 who obey its law. 
 
 The Metaphysical Movement exists, then, 
 as the exponent of an optimism so reasonable 
 and yet so forceful that all men will be drawn 
 to it. It would recognize the inherent goodness 
 
222 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 everywhere. It would not sweep away the 
 grandeur and beauty of the material universe 
 by calling it an illusion and an evil. It be- 
 lieves that the laws and processes of the uni- 
 verse are beneficent, and that the power that 
 is working through it and in it is Wisdom and 
 Love. If this be true, there is absolutely no 
 place for fear and worry. Through true 
 thinking, the New Thought disciple applies 
 this philosophy to every experience of life. 
 The result is a serenity and a poise that are 
 conducive to health, happiness, and power. 
 
 The Metaphysical Movement believes in a 
 divine humanity, a human brotherhood with 
 a divine Fatherhood. The Infinite Unity must 
 have diversity to satisfy His necessity for 
 perpetual expression. In each individual we 
 must recognize a divine possibility and a di- 
 vine instrumentality. The New Thought 
 stands for man's creative cooperation with 
 the divine will, for his bonds of fellowship 
 and sympathy with his fellow-men, and for 
 the necessity of service as the means of ful- 
 filling the complete life. 
 
 The Metaphysical Movement has not come 
 to destroy, but to fulfil. While it is pro- 
 foundly religious, it is non-sectarian. It 
 teaches the universality of religion ; that God's 
 
METAPHYSICAL MOVEMENT 223 
 
 spirit is more or less active in the minds of 
 all people, and that each individual receives 
 according to his needs and desires. It teaches 
 that there is no problem in life that cannot be 
 solved by a knowledge of the law of God as 
 written in the hearts of men, and by obedience 
 thereto. It believes in present and progres- 
 sive revelation of truth, but reverently ac- 
 knowledges our debt to the prophets of God 
 in all ages. Especially in the Christian scrip- 
 tures are found clear and comprehensive state- 
 ments of the truth that has power to liberate, 
 to bless, and to heal. This new movement is 
 aglow with an enthusiastic purpose to make 
 this truth practical here and today, to bring 
 the life of God into the everyday lives of men 
 as a power ever making for righteousness, 
 wholeness, happiness, and health. It would 
 proclaim to man his freedom from the neces- 
 sity of belief in disease, poverty, and all evil 
 as a part of God's plan. 
 
 It is true, as often said, that the New 
 Thought is not new in the elements of truth 
 on which it is based. But in its combination 
 of science, philosophy, and religion, and in its 
 application to the healing of physical, mental, 
 and moral diseases through the development 
 of the spiritual consciousness, it is unique. 
 
224 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 Without a formal creed, believing in organi- 
 zation only as it may promote the general 
 good, the New Thought offers the right hand 
 of fellowship to members of every religious 
 denomination. Free to seek instruction and 
 inspiration in the scriptures of all ages and 
 peoples, it has also a large and increasing lit- 
 erature of its own, much of which is so up- 
 lifting and yet so practical as to be distinctly 
 helpful. In fact, this phrase aptly character- 
 izes the whole movement, uplifting and yet 
 practical. It stands for the practice of the 
 presence of God reduced to a scientific method 
 of living a selfless * life through union in 
 thought with a power that is love in action. 
 In this lies its power to draw out the best 
 that is in humanity; to bring sweetness and 
 light and peace into the lives of hundreds of 
 thousands of people ; to rob death of its sting 
 and pain of its poignancy; to take the terror 
 from disease by proving its powerlessness ; to 
 crown the life with the joy and health and 
 abundance which are the rightful inheritance 
 of every child of God. 
 
 1 That is, unselfish ; through true, not negative, 
 sel f-realization. — Ed. 
 
XX 
 
 THE LAW OF THE GOOD 
 
 BY EGBERT MORSE CHESLEY 
 
 [An address at the convention of the International 
 Metaphysical League, Boston, 1899.] 
 
 Does not the New Thought as well as the 
 Old recognize the existence of evil in the 
 world? Yes. Does not the New as well as 
 the Old Thought recognize the serious conse- 
 quences to soul and body of the deliberate 
 choice of evil? Yes. Do not both the Old 
 and the New Thought believe and teach that 
 evil is to be overcome gradually by the power, 
 the supremacy of the good? Yes. Wherein 
 then is the difference? Wherein is the New 
 Metaphysical Movement any advance on the 
 older ethical and religious systems which have 
 so long dominated the opinions of the world ? 
 Let us consider this question and endeavor to 
 clear away certain doubts and misconceptions. 
 Of course I can here speak only of a single 
 phase of the subject. I must confine my re- 
 marks to this one point — the difference be- 
 225 
 
226 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 tween the Old and the New Thought as to the 
 establishment of good and the abolition of evil 
 — the overcoming of evil conditions in mind, 
 body and environment. There is then a very 
 great difference between the Old Thought and 
 the New. I am thoroughly well assured that 
 the New Thought teaching will be found to be 
 immeasurably superior to the older ethical and 
 religious teaching along these particular lines. 
 Let us see. 
 
 1. The New Philosophy of Health places an 
 enormous emphasis upon the good. The good 
 is the supreme reality and the eternal Law of 
 the Good is the very heart of the universe and 
 of us. The evil is but temporary and inci- 
 dental. It belongs to the phenomenal, not 
 the noumenal, order. There is no being, life 
 or intelligence back of it. It arises from our 
 ignorance, our imperfection, our non-realiza- 
 tion of the truth. It is a vanishing element in 
 the cosmos and is powerless in the presence 
 of the realized good. It disappears as the 
 darkness in the presence of the light. It is, 
 in other words, a relative, and not an absolute, 
 reality. It is the privation or negation of that 
 which eternally is. 
 
 2. The New Philosophy of Health teaches, 
 in season and out of season, not to dwell upon 
 
THE LAW OF THE GOOD 227 
 
 the evil in thought, for this confirms its real- 
 ity and strengthens its power. It teaches us 
 to ignore, as much as possible, the evil, to look 
 away from the evil, and to fill our minds with 
 the thoughts of the good. It teaches us to rec- 
 ognize the good everywhere, to affirm the eter- 
 nal reality of the good, to believe in the good, 
 to ally ourselves with the absolute Law of the 
 Good. The New Philosophy of Health utters 
 its decree that the good is always overcoming 
 the evil that is in the universe; that it is in- 
 finitely stronger than the evil; and that it is 
 the true and eternal nature of man, however 
 far he may have wandered away in conscious- 
 ness from his Source. Instead of the older 
 view of the degradation, the moral inability, 
 the natural sinfulness of man, the New 
 Thought emphasizes the view of Leibnitz and 
 Emerson that man is godlike and that all spir- 
 itual being is potentially within him. Its gos- 
 pel is the gospel of hope. It brings tidings of 
 great joy. It recognizes that the spirit of man 
 is sinless, diseaseless and deathless, sharing 
 the very nature of God and destined to immor- 
 tal glory. It believes with Maurice and Er- 
 skine that every man is a child of God now, 
 although he may not know it ; that every man 
 lives and moves and has his being in God now, 
 
228 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 although he may repudiate and deny the fact ; 
 that the Divine Love, infinite in tenderness, 
 lies at the heart of every man, awaiting rec- 
 ognition and responsive trust and affection. 
 
 But the New Thought does not hold these 
 sublime facts of man's spiritual being as beau- 
 tiful and cherished theories and ideals to be 
 speculated upon and talked about. It believes 
 in their realization here and now. It holds 
 them as great practical truths to be demon- 
 strated in the daily life in time. It believes 
 in the regeneration and transformation of the 
 old order of things, now hastening to its de- 
 cay. We have had enough of vain and empty 
 theory. We have had a surfeit of high-sound- 
 ing phrases about the dignity and the divinity 
 of human nature from our pulpits and in our 
 religious periodicals. Now let us have life — 
 the practical exemplification of our theories. 
 Now, at length, let us have the courage of our 
 convictions — the glory of actual achievement. 
 The New Thought not only believes, but it 
 knows, and has practically demonstrated, that 
 man has a hitherto undreamed of power over 
 his own psychical and bodily states, and even 
 over the forces and laws of external nature. 
 It believes and knows that we are on the verge 
 of a new and wonderful era, and that we are 
 
THE LAW OF THE GOOD 229 
 
 just beginning to enter into the possession and 
 enjoyment of that marvelous inheritance 
 which has always been ours from the foun- 
 dation of the world. 
 
 3. The New Philosophy of Health has dis- 
 covered the wonderful power of the great Af- 
 firmations of Being, both in the culture of the 
 ethical and spiritual life, and in the overcom- 
 ing of diseased conditions of soul and body. 
 It has been proven in thousands of instances 
 that their faithful and persistent use weakens 
 the power of evil in the human heart, purifies 
 the soul of its baser tendencies, and brings 
 man into the realization of his royal spiritual 
 nature, his divine sonship. Speaking from the 
 plane of that spiritual nature, that great and 
 transcendent Self which is common to us all, 
 that Eternal Christ who is our life, we have 
 the perfect right to affirm with all the energy 
 and conviction of our souls : — 
 
 Absolute Good is the one supreme reality 
 — omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient. 
 
 All evil is relative, a shadow of mortal con- 
 sciousness — from the highest divine stand- 
 point, unreality. 
 
 All things are working together for my good 
 in the infinite Love of God. I rest in perfect 
 peace. 
 
230 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 God is my all-sufficiency in all things. I 
 have no doubt I have no fear. 
 
 I am one with the eternal Law of the Good 
 and all is well. 
 
 In the eternal reality of my being all good 
 things are mine now. 
 
 I am that great and divine Self — poised al- 
 ways in the Truth of Being, calm, serene and 
 strong. 
 
 In me, the Self, are all the treasures of wis- 
 dom, life and power. 
 
 The power of my emancipated Will is om- 
 nipotent to overcome all errors, falsities and 
 illusions. 
 
 I am rejoicing here and now in the freedom 
 and the joy of God. 
 
 The persistent daily employment of such 
 grand health-giving words, which are pro- 
 foundly true of man's spiritual nature, is not 
 only perfectly legitimate, but is the means by 
 which the living, developing soul unifies itself 
 with its true and universal being. In this way 
 the soul learns to know that it is alive with 
 the life of the Spirit, strong with the strength 
 of the Spirit, and wise with the wisdom that 
 is infinite. The faithful, earnest use of these 
 ideal affirmations will bring health, peace, joy 
 and freedom. 
 
THE LAW OF THE GOOD 231 
 
 Of course, all this presupposes a deep and 
 earnest desire for that eternal good which is 
 life and health and peace, as well as a will- 
 ingness to renounce all known error and evil. 
 Of course, the truth must be lived out in our 
 practical relations with the world. But the 
 continued use of these affirmations, these ideal 
 suggestions, with right understanding and 
 right conviction, will enable the soul to do this 
 very thing, will give it greater and greater 
 strength to overcome its native weaknesses, 
 greater and greater wisdom to manifest the 
 fair fruits of righteousness, peace and love. 
 
 The true prayer without ceasing is the per- 
 petual realization and affirmation of the good. 
 When seeming evil assails us, as it surely will, 
 let us meet it instantly with the understanding 
 of its unreality in the presence of the good, 
 with the assertion that it has no place at all 
 in the Truth of Being or in us. We shall at 
 length become so poised and stabled in the 
 good that all our thoughts and words will be 
 based upon this principle and all we do will 
 be done in the spirit of love which is the Spirit 
 of God. To all those passing out of the old 
 thought-life, with its baneful recognition of 
 evil, into the new, times of testing will come. 
 The power of old habits of thought is very 
 
232 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 great. They become a kind of second nature 
 — ignorance crystallized in the subconscious 
 mind. But in all our times of trial let us hold 
 fast to the eternal verities and be undismayed. 
 Error-thoughts may have taken root in the 
 mind through many incarnations. Very well, 
 then the conquest of them by this new and 
 royal method is the greater glory. Let our 
 declarations of the truth be the more positive 
 and the more constant. Let our faith in the 
 supreme reality of the good be the more un- 
 wavering. Let us stand firm in our footsteps 
 and claim our divine inheritance. Let us real- 
 ize that our redemption is always at hand, be- 
 cause we are united with the wonderful Law 
 of the Good. Herein is the way of health, 
 happiness and prosperity. Herein is the as- 
 surance of freedom and salvation from the 
 ills of time. In this way we break the spell 
 of mortal ignorance and error and begin to 
 live the true and higher life. 
 
 The daily use of the great Affirmations of 
 Being is the new method of prayer and thanks- 
 giving, now rapidly gaining recognition in our 
 world. I believe that it will ultimately largely 
 supersede the older forms of seeking and wor- 
 shiping the one Infinite Spirit. Its superiority 
 consists in this: With earnest desire and as- 
 
THE LAW OF THE GOOD 233 
 
 piration for the good, it combines the greatest 
 faith. The very form of affirmation in which 
 we clothe our petition implies our perfect faith 
 that all good things are already ours — that is, 
 in the deeper realities of our being. This new 
 form of prayer, therefore, fulfils the require- 
 ment of that sublime and mystical saying of 
 Jesus : Whatsoever ye ask and pray for, be- 
 lieve that ye have received it, and ye shall have 
 it. This word of the Master is one of the 
 grandest statements of reality ever made since 
 the dawn of human intelligence. The world 
 is just beginning to understand it. The New 
 Thought Movement endeavors courageously 
 to put it into practice. The perennial con- 
 sciousness of the absolute reality and univer- 
 sality of the good, which is one of the cardi- 
 nal principles of the New Metaphysical 
 Movement, promises to revolutionize our 
 whole religious thinking. This consciousness 
 is rapidly gaining ground in our Christian 
 churches. The absolute Law of the Good, the 
 eternal supremacy of the good, are being more 
 and more revealed to all men everywhere in 
 these closing days of our century. I believe 
 that the general acceptance and practical ap- 
 plication of this philosophy of the good will 
 do more to banish war and injustice, sin, sor- 
 
234 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 row and sickness, from the world than all 
 other agencies combined. 
 
 We can really affirm ourselves to be that 
 which we most desire to be, and can actually 
 achieve magnificent results. A man is essen- 
 tially and fundamentally a consciousness. He 
 may train and mold that consciousness in ac- 
 cordance with his highest ideals. How? 
 Through the undreamed of power of the af- 
 firmations of truth, thousands of times re- 
 peated in the light of his highest spiritual 
 intelligence. By the faithful use of these af- 
 firmations the lower mind may be thoroughly 
 transformed and renewed. There is a well- 
 known psychical law underlying all this. The 
 spirit of man is creative. It may impress its 
 wisdom, its power, its sense of freedom, upon 
 the conscious and the subconscious mind, and 
 may fashion them into the image of the truth. 
 It may purify the outer vehicles in which the 
 Immortal Ego functions and establish health 
 and harmony in place of disease and discord. 
 
 The intelligent and persistent use of the 
 great affirmations of Being can change those 
 universal race-beliefs which have so long held 
 us in bondage. It can destroy those wide- 
 spread errors of thought into which we are all 
 born, and which have become for us such sure 
 
THE LAW OF THE GOOD 235 
 
 and abiding realities. Many of the so-called 
 laws of our physical nature are really not such 
 at all. On the contrary, they are laws made 
 by man himself, his legacy from the long past 
 — the infantile stages of his evolution. They 
 can be transcended by him who knows the 
 Law, by him who has the spiritual wisdom to 
 contradict and annul them. As has been inti- 
 mated, the spoken word is very powerful. 
 But of course the spoken word alone is not 
 sufficient. The spirit of our affirmations must 
 get itself incorporated into our daily thinking 
 and acting, working in us regeneration — 
 birth from the old into the new kingdom of 
 the truth. 
 
 These ideal affirmations, these assertions 
 born of a higher knowledge, this abiding con- 
 sciousness of the power and reality of the 
 truth, this understanding and this practice of 
 the presence of the good, — these, I repeat, are 
 the most effective means by which we may 
 re-create our whole being. No outside power 
 will do this work for us. The work is in our 
 own hands. We must be thoroughly con- 
 vinced that we are co-creators with God. We 
 must think and speak from the standpoint of 
 the True Self. We must recognize under all 
 circumstances our inborn divinity. 
 
236 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 As we withdraw our consciousness, our rec- 
 ognition, from the old beliefs of error which 
 have so long enslaved us, what happens? 
 They gradually die out from lack of nourish- 
 ment. They are not rooted and grounded in 
 the truth, and so they are negative to the high- 
 er thoughts of the good. We are not to fight 
 the old beliefs ; we are not to fear them and 
 make realities of them ; but we are to concen- 
 trate our attention upon the high truths of 
 spiritual reality. What are the high truths of 
 spiritual reality? They are health, strength, 
 freedom, life. As the old beliefs of sin, sor- 
 row, sickness, failure, disappear from our 
 conscious and subconscious mind, their effects 
 disappear also from the body. Why? Body 
 and mind are essentially one. The body is a 
 perpetual expression of the soul or mind. Our 
 general mental attitude is constantly affecting 
 for good or evil every cell, molecule and atom, 
 all the fluids and the tissues, of the physical 
 organism. This is the physiological fact. 
 
 But more than this will take place. As a 
 man steadfastly thinks the thoughts of the 
 eternal truth, as he persistently and unfalter- 
 ingly allies himself with the perfect Law of 
 the Good, his whole environment begins to 
 change also, lie finds that the spirit within 
 
THE LAW OF THE GOOD 237 
 
 him has a kind of magical power over his ex- 
 ternal circumstances. When a man becomes 
 consciously unified with the wonderful Law 
 of the Good, he finds all things begin to go 
 well with him, on all the planes of life. An- 
 cient errors are dissolved out. The law of 
 his evil fate or karma begins to be overcome 
 by his knowledge of the truth, and he is car- 
 ried forward swiftly in his moral and spirit- 
 ual evolution. Such a man has entered into 
 the vibrations of power, success and prosper- 
 ity. He becomes more and more a center of 
 attraction for all good things. He becomes 
 a conscious sharer in the freedom and the op- 
 ulence of God. Remember the teaching of 
 Emerson, America's greatest prophet and 
 philosopher. A corresponding revolution in 
 things, he tells us, will attend the influx of 
 the universal Spirit. He assures us that we 
 create our own circumstances, and that the 
 kingdom of man over external nature is a 
 dominion which is now beyond his dream of 
 God. And the word of Emerson is true. The 
 era he foresaw is just at hand. The New 
 Thought Movement is the herald of this new 
 and glorious day. 
 
 "All that we are is the result of what we 
 have thought." This profound truth, which 
 
238 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 we have received from the Orient, holds good 
 through all our incarnations, through all the 
 processes of our evolution from the beginning 
 to the ending. Let us think, then, the thoughts 
 pertaining to the eternal truth. Let us speak, 
 then, the words pertaining to the eternal truth. 
 
 In all this that has preceded I have care- 
 fully distinguished between spirit, soul, and 
 body. The spirit is our real being, the Self, 
 the Indwelling God; the soul or mind is our 
 present consciousness of our spiritual reality; 
 the body is the outer expression or manifesta- 
 tion of the soul and spirit. 
 
 There are those who deny our right to use 
 these high affirmations of our perfection, 
 power, life, freedom, on the ground that they 
 are not strictly true. Certainly they are not 
 true of the outer personality, the growing, de- 
 veloping soul or mind ; but they are profound- 
 ly true of the Higher Self. Man is really and 
 interiorly a great and powerful consciousness, 
 or rather superconsciousness. He determines 
 largely his own destiny. He contains within 
 himself an infinite order of life, by its very 
 nature superior to growth and decay. He is 
 the creator of countless forms or manifesta- 
 tions through which he, the Immortal Ego, 
 functions through endless cycles of time. The 
 
THE LAW OF THE GOOD 239 
 
 supreme object of our life in time is this, — 
 the gradual recognition of the God within us, 
 the gradual restoration of this divinity to its 
 rightful place and power. 
 
 Let the soul then continue, day by day, to 
 sing the exultant song of the spirit. Let it 
 identify itself with the higher ranges of its 
 being — with the glory of that true and divine 
 Self which is sinless, diseaseless and deathless. 
 The supreme statements of spiritual reality 
 are, to him who knows how to use them, the 
 very manna and the wine of life, the secret of 
 divine attainment, the sources of health and 
 perfection to mind and body. 1 
 
 1 The above discussion puts the leadership of 
 Emerson in the right place, without attributing to 
 him what he did not do. A recent writer has tried 
 to make out that Emerson originated and first used 
 the New Thought, since Emerson and Margaret 
 Fuller referred to the transcendentalist philosophy 
 as "this new thought." "Others took up the term," 
 says this writer, "and in the early days of the 
 Unitarian Church its leaders referred to the Uni- 
 tarian ideas as "this new thought." "This new 
 thought" was really the thought of religion as a fine 
 art rather than as fine theology or philosophy. . . . 
 Later came Quimby and his class of students who 
 went a step farther and organized faith itself for 
 practice. _ In other words, transcendentalism and 
 Unitarianism began the New Thought, and Quimby 
 and his class of students . . . carried the re- 
 aranging of religious into the purely metaphysical 
 realm. ..." 
 
 To say this is curiously to misread history. Uni- 
 
240 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 tarianism did not lead to mental healing, and never 
 has led to it. Although Quimby and the later fol- 
 lowers came _ to think much like the Unitarians 
 on certain points, they were one and all Orthodox 
 in the beginning. To try to deprive Quimby of his 
 work of discovery would be much like trying to 
 discredit Christopher Columbus. It was the develop- 
 ment of mental healing which made the New 
 Thought possible, however many times the mere 
 form of words "new thought," may have been used, 
 just as it was the voyage of Columbus that made 
 possible the voyages of those who later settled in 
 America. The term New Thought as now used 
 came into vogue in 1894, in Massachusetts, and its 
 use then became general. — Ed. 
 
XXI 
 
 THE NEW THOUGHT TODAY 
 
 [The following is compiled from various bulletins 
 issued from Washington by the International New 
 Thought Alliance, since April 1, 1916. These, the 
 most recent statements, by new leaders, indicate the 
 present trend of the New Thought.] 
 
 The most startling thing about New 
 Thought is that it is not new. It is the oldest 
 thing in the world — the only thing new about 
 it is the form in which it is presented to the 
 world. New Thought is a new way of think- 
 ing about man, God, and about thought itself. 
 Thoughts are things, and things are thoughts. 
 "Thing" and "thought" are twin words, and 
 at their root are one 1 . . . These are some 
 of the ideas that have received the name "New 
 Thought" : that disease is of mental origin in- 
 
 1 Of course the new leaders cannot mean that 
 these terms are wholly interchangeable. They mean 
 that thought is a reality, a formative power — not a 
 vague or inefficient force — and that by right thought 
 one can dispel adverse beliefs which credit too much 
 power to "things" in the world of space and time. 
 —Ed. 
 
 241 
 
242 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 stead of material; that right thinking brings 
 health to the body and prosperity to one's af- 
 fairs; that right thoughts will heal perverted 
 appetites like drunkenness and sinful living; 
 that knowledge can conquer death; that God- 
 love in the heart will destroy all enmity on the 
 part of people and other creatures; and that 
 there is no limit to thought and its power, 
 except what thought puts upon itself. . . . 
 
 The basis of New Thought belief is that 
 all life is one, and that man is the highest ex- 
 pression of that life, the fountainhead or 
 first cause of which is Universal Energy or 
 Force — God. It believes that man, through 
 recognition of his unity with this force, has 
 power to control absolutely his own fate and 
 create conditions of life and environment to 
 his own desire. 
 
 Healing the sick is a strong feature of the 
 New Thought movement, and great work has 
 been, and is being done, by its followers, who, 
 however, do not claim to possess any special 
 power in accomplishing desired results. They 
 know that this power is common property, and 
 that it is at the disposal of all just as soon 
 as they know how to claim and appropriate 
 their own from the Universal Source. They 
 take literally Christ's promise: "He that be- 
 
THE NEW THOUGHT TODAY 243 
 
 lieveth on Me, the works that I do shall he 
 do also; and greater works than these shall 
 he do;" and believe that the power to do His 
 works is just as potent within us now as it 
 was ever in any man; we can demonstrate 
 this power simply through the realization of 
 our possession of it. 1 
 
 New Thought does not condemn any form 
 of healing, metaphysical or physical, but re- 
 gards them all as good; realizes that physi- 
 cians and drugs are necessary to many lives 
 at the present stage of development, but be- 
 lieves that, as the race unfolds, all external 
 aids will be discarded, and eventually it will 
 be universally realized that all healing comes 
 from within, and not from without. 
 
 New Thought believes that the laws and 
 processes of the universe are beneficent. This 
 being true, there is absolutely no place for 
 fear and worry. The disciple applies this 
 philosophy to every experience of life. The 
 result is a serenity and poise that are condu- 
 cive to health, happiness and power. 
 
 The New Thought believes in a common 
 brotherhood with a divine Fatherhood. It 
 
 x To this might be added the plea expressed in the 
 foregoing chapters for a real science as the true 
 basis for healing. — Ed. 
 
244 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 has not come to destroy, but to fulfil. While 
 it is profoundly religious, it is non-sectarian. 
 It teaches that there is no problem in life that 
 cannot be solved by a knowledge of the law 
 of God as written in the hearts of men and by 
 obedience thereto 
 
 The International New Thought Alliance is 
 an affiliation of all teachers and leaders who 
 are putting before the world the principles of 
 New Thought. It is not an organization in 
 the old sense of the word, but a union for 
 constructive work, and it is not so much an 
 institution as an influence. Article II of the 
 Constitution and By-Laws of the Interna- 
 tional New Thought Alliance defines its pur- 
 poses as, "To teach the Infinitude of the 
 Supreme One; the Divinity of Man and his 
 Infinite Possibilities through the creative 
 power of constructive thinking; and, obedience 
 to the voice of the Indwelling Presence, which 
 is our source of Inspiration, Power, Health, 
 and Prosperity." Its motto is "Propaganda 
 and Fellowship." It has no fixed creed or 
 dogma, and it does not endeavor to regulate 
 people's beliefs, but rather to make them be- 
 lieve in themselves. . . . 
 
 Many inquiries are received at headquar- 
 ters asking this question, What is New 
 
THE NEW THOUGHT TODAY 245 
 
 Thought? To answer in a word, New 
 Thought believes in the Good. The motto 
 of the old crusaders was "God with us." The 
 motto of the New Thought is "God in us." 
 The consciousness of the divinity at the heart 
 of things gives life a new meaning. If man 
 is made in the image of God, he partakes of 
 the divine nature. God is Love, God is 
 Health, God is Abundance, God is Joy, God 
 is Peace, God is Illuminated Intelligence, God 
 is from Everlasting to Everlasting, in the eter- 
 nal Here and Now, and man, who is the child 
 of God, made in His image, partakes of all 
 these things. This is the New Thought — the 
 New Thought of God. He is not alien, He is 
 not distant, He is "nearer than hands and 
 feet," He is the one life and we are in that 
 one life. All the Good belongs to us. It is 
 our divine inheritance. 
 
 "New Thought" is not a name or expres- 
 sion used to designate any fixed system of 
 thought, philosophy, or religion, but the term 
 itself conveys the idea of a growing or devel- 
 oping thought. When New Thought is mold- 
 ed and formed into a system it ceases to be 
 "New" Thought. Truth is not susceptible of 
 monopoly or being made into a system. It 
 cannot be encompassed by institutions, but its 
 
246 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 living Spirit is present in every manifested 
 form and object of nature. 
 
 The New Thought practises in the twenti- 
 eth century what Jesus taught and practised 
 in the first century. He taught healing — it 
 practises healing. He said "Judge not that ye 
 be not judged" — it discourages condemnation 
 and sees the good in others. He admonished 
 us to take no anxious thought for the morrow 
 — it practises the divine supply. He taught 
 faith — it makes faith the central principle of 
 its theory and practice. He taught love and 
 brotherhood — it is demonstrating unity and 
 cooperation. The New Thought is the 
 Christ-thought made new by being applied 
 and proved in everyday affairs. 
 
 The New Thought is positive. It would 
 overcome sickness by health, error by truth, 
 anger by love, evil by good. The things of 
 God are all positive, for any negation is lack 
 of God. . . . 
 
 Life is organic. The life principle is always 
 manifested through harmonious cooperation 
 of different cells and organs. A movement 
 that is vital must have the same harmonious 
 cooperation between the individuals that com- 
 pose it. True organization is the very opposite 
 of crystallization, for crystallization means 
 
THE NEW THOUGHT TODAY 247 
 
 death, while organization of the right kind 
 means life and life more abundant. 
 
 Organization in no wise limits individual- 
 ity, but rather supplements and completes it. 
 There are certain things that many working 
 together can do better than the same individ- 
 uals can do working alone. Team-play is the 
 keynote of this age — the most vital and pro- 
 gressive age in history. 
 
 An organization does not believe and, there- 
 fore, should not dictate the belief of its mem- 
 bers. Only individuals believe. Each man 
 has his own creed. The very word is from 
 credo, which is a singular verb in the first per- 
 son, meaning "I believe." True organization 
 has no right to interfere with this most sacred 
 prerogative of the human soul. It is the di- 
 vine right of each individual to believe what 
 he pleases. As a man's home is his castle, so 
 his conviction is sacred and belongs to a realm 
 that society has no business to invade. With 
 belief, organization has nothing to do, although 
 the beliefs of its members have everything to 
 do with organization, for they constitute its 
 soul. In the true sense, individuals should 
 have more liberty in cooperation and corre- 
 lation than when working at divergent and 
 cross purposes without being rightly related 
 
248 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 each to the other. Fcr what is liberty but the 
 freedom to fill one's own part in the divine 
 scheme, and how can we best fulfil this part 
 except as we work in harmony with others 
 who are filling their parts? 
 
 Organizations are created to do things 
 which can better be done by working together 
 than by working singly. It is on these lines 
 that the International New Thought Alliance 
 is proceeding. It is merely a band of indi- 
 vidual centers and individual teachers and 
 followers working together in freedom for 
 one common purpose, and this purpose is to 
 carry the truth message and the healing mes- 
 sage to all who are ready to receive. . . . 
 
 The New Thought movement cannot be 
 measured by numbers. It is not so much an 
 institution as an influence. It is impossible 
 to determine the exact extent to which this 
 influence has affected modern thought, but 
 even its enemies must admit that it has been 
 considerable. Consciously or unconsciously it 
 has literally affected millions of people. Signs 
 of its far-reaching effects are seen on the 
 stage, in the pulpit and in the press. The new 
 fiction of the day abounds with it, many of the 
 new plays are fashioned along similar lines, 
 the moving pictures not infrequently feature 
 
THE NEW THOUGHT TODAY 249 
 
 it on the screen, while in many of the ortho- 
 dox and liberal pulpits, especially in the large 
 cities, may be heard "New Thought sermons." 
 
 This is as we would have it, for the lead- 
 ers of this movement are not so desirous of 
 building up a great organization as they are 
 of influencing the world for good. Many of 
 our members are also members of churches 
 and we are not only content that they should 
 retain their church membership but often urge 
 them to do so and to become better church 
 members than before, teaching the truth ac- 
 cording to the new illumination they have re- 
 ceived. So long as the world is benefited, so 
 long as the health, prosperity and happiness 
 of men and women are augmented, so long as 
 the cause of peace and brotherhood is ad- 
 vanced, so long as the thoughts of men grow 
 more constructive, more cheerful and more in 
 harmony with the divine thought, we are sat- 
 isfied. 
 
 Whether it be from this cause, or others, 
 or from many causes working in conjunction, 
 a transformation is taking place in the thought 
 of the world. It is apparent in many lands. 
 Even in the midst of the terrible war in Eu- 
 rope, perhaps as a reaction from its horrors, 
 is growing up a new spirituality. 
 
250 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 [Comparing the above with the expositions of the 
 New Thought in the preceding chapters, one finds 
 it essentially the same in spirit. The newer leaders 
 have lost the vagueness of some of the earlier writers, 
 while gaining a directness of thought which some- 
 times oversteps the mark. The individualism of the 
 early days is still apparent, but also a spirit of co- 
 operation and fellowship which the leaders of twenty 
 years ago pleaded for almost in vain. The present 
 clarifying statements concerning the true functions 
 of an organization may well challenge the attention 
 of those who adhere to the formal statements of 
 conventional creeds. If the New Thought is essen- 
 tially a "tendency," a "developing thought," not a 
 fixity, it must be so regarded by its critics. 
 
 But if "only individuals believe," each having a 
 "creed of his own," in what sense is the New Thought 
 still "a rational and positive spiritual philosophy," 
 in the terms of Henry Wood? What is universal? 
 What is "the science of life and happiness"? In 
 what philosophical sense is all life "one"? The New 
 Thought is indeed "not a fixed system of thought," 
 and yet its adherents have held stoutly to certain 
 propositions that may readily be stated in universal 
 form, and submitted to the. tests of philosophic rea- 
 son and carefully scrutinized experience. Thus Mr. 
 Chesley pleads for the "Law of the Good," while all 
 the essayists argue for certain psychological prin- 
 ciples in accordance with the law of growth "from 
 within outward." These and the other general prop- 
 ositions may be put to the test in the light of 
 science today. 
 
 The above statement that man is "divine," with 
 
THE NEW THOUGHT TODAY 251 
 
 "infinite" possibilities, would seem to imply that we 
 can all be gods. It is profitable to contrast with 
 this statement the more cautious plea in a foregoing 
 essay that man is a "medium" of God, and Mr. 
 Wood's effort to avoid both pantheism and indi- 
 vidualism. We find the true clue, no doubt, in the 
 more qualified proposition above, that "God is in 
 us." This indeed is the real "Spirit of the New 
 Thought." God of course is the only Divine being. 
 Man lives, moves, and has his being in God, and 
 may become in deepest truth a medium or instru- 
 mentality, a child of God. What is needed is affirm- 
 ative realization of the Divine presence. For, as the 
 above reads, God is in us, not simply "with" us. 
 
 If, then, we say that the inner life is the source 
 of causality, we must mean that all true causes are 
 spiritual, that is, all are from the Divine. A "men- 
 tal" cause might be an affirmation suited to the 
 individual merely, and it might express mere caprice. 
 Any one is free to make this venture, to deem 
 "environment" passive in contrast with his will. Any 
 one may regard his thoughts as "things" in the sense 
 that everything shall seem to be as he thinks. But 
 if one wishes to find the universal basis of thought, 
 one surely needs to avoid putting undue emphasis 
 on the finite self. 
 
 Mr. Quimby set a good example in this respect. 
 He did not claim much for himself when he held 
 that there is a "science of life and happiness," a 
 science which, when stated in scriptural terms, he 
 calls "Christian Science" in one of his articles. 
 His emphasis was on the universal, on the prin- 
 ciples and methods which are for all — the Christ- 
 
252 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 science of all time, in contrast with the facts of 
 any particular phase of history. He did not claim 
 much as a re-discoverer. The greatest value of his 
 work lay in the method of silent spiritual healing 
 whereby the Christ-science could be made real for 
 any individual. The emphasis belongs on the science 
 as divine, not on man as the one to use it in the 
 service of others, although each must believe in 
 himself as heir of the spiritual ages. 
 
 The following essay may suggest a way to re- 
 estimate the "Spirit of the New Thought" in this 
 connection. It was called out by one of the usual 
 criticisms of the New Thought when the writer was 
 pleading for a return to the Gospels as clues to 
 spiritual healing. The critic, a theologian, claimed 
 that the Gospel works of healing were different in 
 kind, hence that one must first draw doctrinal dis- 
 tinctions between the Lord and man, between "divine 
 miracles of healing" for a purpose in a given age, 
 and the merely "magical miracles" of Christian 
 Science and the New Thought. The writer con- 
 tends, however, that one should judge the works of 
 healing today as if one believed that God lives 
 today, that the divine kingdom is inseparable from 
 the soul. May we not see a purpose, then, in the 
 healing movement which began with Quimby, and 
 which has differentiated into all the present-day 
 branches — Christian Science; Divine Science; Prac- 
 tical Christianity as advocated by Unity, Kansas 
 City; and the various phases of the New Thought? 
 Should we not interpret this movement from within, 
 in the light of actual experience?] 
 
XXII 
 THE LAWS OF DIVINE HEALING 1 
 
 BY HORATIO W. DRESSER 
 
 To call a process divine is tacitly to admit 
 that in some respects it eludes the finest anal- 
 ysis. Yet this should not keep us from the 
 effort to learn whatever can be known. We 
 say that love is divine, but we endeavor to 
 grow in appreciation of its beauty and its 
 power, and to understand its influence in hu- 
 man life. The universe is in the profoundest 
 sense a manifestation or product of the Di- 
 vine mind, replete with purposes that surpass 
 our knowledge ; yet we do not hesitate to study 
 it with the conviction that our own reason is 
 akin to this mind and these purposes. Since 
 God is the ultimate life of all processes, there 
 is a sense in which every investigation is a 
 quest for the divine, whatever we may say for 
 short when" we speak as if nature were a pow- 
 er in itself. To assign all supremacy to God 
 is to start aright, and to bear in mind the rel- 
 
 1 Reprinted from Nautilus, Holyoke, Mass., 1914. 
 253 
 
254 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 ativity of things human and natural. Hence 
 one employs the adjective "divine" not for the 
 sake of making special claims but rather to 
 disclaim special knowledge, intimating that 
 far beyond there lie the depths of the "un- 
 speakable wisdom and knowledge of God." 
 
 From a once prevalent point of view, what- 
 ever is divine was long ago revealed once for 
 all; hence the day of wonders and immediate 
 evidences of the divine presence has forever 
 gone from the world. This meant that a par- 
 ticular interpretation put upon the Bible was 
 final. But this has never been proved. The 
 simplest of spiritually-minded men may at any 
 time discern a truth which has escaped the ec- 
 clesiastics. If the Bible contains divine truth 
 this truth is in part concealed, since the mere 
 letter is often obscure and conflicting. If it 
 contains divine truth its wisdom is universal, 
 and we may expect to discover its meaning 
 to the end of time. If the truth in the Bible 
 is from the same source as the universe at 
 large, the chief value of the Bible may be said 
 to be its power to explain the principles mani- 
 fested in the universe and written in the minds 
 of men. Hence one who really possesses the 
 clue should be able to discern the divine truth 
 everywhere. Thus nature at any point is an 
 
LAWS OF DIVINE HEALING 255 
 
 earnest of the divine, for him who has eyes. 
 The laws of God are written in nature's 
 events, and man as an interpreter is in no 
 sense alien to the processes he would under- 
 stand. The truer the insight the less is one 
 dependent on authorities or books, the more 
 time and thought may be given to actual life 
 today, in contrast with the study of history. 
 Time brings changes, and unless we are open 
 to the living event we may miss the divine 
 message to our age. It is more important to 
 live deeply in the present than to know the 
 past. 
 
 History shows that new events are readily 
 declared to be miracles by those who are ig- 
 norant of the laws implied in them. The more 
 intelligent men become the less they believe 
 in miracles. Today we seldom hear them 
 mentioned, for we have grown accustomed to 
 the thought of law. Yet we may well bear 
 in mind the fact that in every field of knowl- 
 edge familiar to us there were pioneers whose 
 first works seemed magical. Many of us are 
 still dwellers in that vague realm where won- 
 ders seem possible. There are "signs and 
 wonders" which even the wisest have not yet 
 explained. We may well try to penetrate be- 
 hind the myth or credulous belief to the core 
 
256 SPIRIT OF THE- NEW THOUGHT 
 
 of fact, and press forward to the time when 
 the true explanation shall appear. It is im- 
 portant, too, to keep our minds open to re- 
 currences of events which were once pro- 
 nounced miracles because produced by some 
 pioneer or prophet. To allege that "the day 
 of miracles is past" is to close the door even 
 to the inner core of reality concealed within 
 the so-called miracle. 
 
 He who starts with a dogmatic or historic 
 judgment concerning spiritual works is likely 
 to turn to his age with disparagement on his 
 lips. Equipped as he believes himself to be 
 with the right theology and the true distinc- 
 tion between divine "miracles" and the ordi- 
 nary deeds of men, he believes himself able 
 to discern all the truth there is in a new work, 
 say of healing, wrought today. The proba- 
 bility is that he does not see the new happen- 
 ing in its true light at all. 
 
 Truly to estimate the recent occurrence one 
 must first ask : What has happened ; what are 
 the facts? The next step is to ask, How can 
 the facts best be explained ? In the quest for 
 an adequate explanation one may well consult 
 the wise books of the ages, while also seeking 
 the aid of the most thoughtful people today. 
 
 Let us frankly admit that works of healing 
 
LAWS OF DIVINE HEALING 257 
 
 are susceptible of many explanations, and that 
 each of us may seem to have the right ex- 
 planation simply because our view of the mat- 
 ter harmonizes with what we have previously 
 believed. If we are to seek an explanation 
 which may rightfully be called divine, we must 
 take a number of supposably adequate theo- 
 ries and put them to the test. The theologian 
 who claims to know precisely how Jesus healed 
 the sick, and to know this so well as to be con- 
 vinced that there are no works of divine heal- 
 ing wrought today may well be challenged to 
 prove his assumption by his works. As a 
 matter of fact, they best know how Jesus 
 healed who know most from actual experi- 
 ence about the therapeutical works even now 
 taking place among us. 
 
 Fortunately for them, those who led the 
 way in establishing the modern healing move- 
 ment were not handicapped by theology. They 
 themselves were healed by divine power, and 
 then power came to heal others. So the belief 
 has spread. The actual works of healing, the 
 "signs following" are the true tests. Given 
 these signs, we may account for them as best 
 we can. But there are the facts. 
 
 The difficulty in the case of certain types of 
 theology is that so many theoretical distinc- 
 
258 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 tions are first insisted on that there is no room 
 for belief in the power to heal or in the facts. 
 That is, we are told that we should first draw 
 a sharp line between the divine and the hu- 
 man, and avoid the assumption that man is 
 divine. When these and other distinctions 
 have been drawn the divine is already so far 
 from us that it is no wonder we cannot be- 
 lieve in divine healing. 
 
 Starting the other way around, let us say 
 that the divine is infinitely near, and that it is 
 a question of taking down barriers and dis- 
 tinctions. We may even say with unqualified 
 truth, Everything is divine. The trouble is 
 that we do not see its divine power and mean- 
 ing. We have separated ourselves from God 
 and wandered afar. We have asserted our 
 wills. We have become emotionally intense, 
 full of fear, excitement, anxiety. Let us then 
 be inwardly still and know that God is nigh. 
 
 If we once gain the idea we may turn to 
 any aspect of the wonderful processes going 
 on within us and find it divine. From this 
 point of view nature's entire recuperative proc- 
 ess is evidence of the divine wisdom, and no 
 adequate explanation of it can be made save 
 in terms of the divine. Nothing could be more 
 providential than the wonderful restorative 
 
LAWS OF DIVINE HEALING 259 
 
 processes aroused into action whenever the 
 natural functions are impaired. Nor can we 
 find more marked evidences of wise provision 
 than the strong instincts which lead us to seek 
 and to maintain health. The conviction which 
 assures us that health is our birthright, and 
 the strong will which stirs us to fight for life 
 even when all odds appear to be against us 
 are also evidences of this wise provision. The 
 trouble with us is not that we make too much, 
 but that we do not make enough of the di- 
 vine. If we really lived according to the di- 
 vine we should be well in soul and body. 
 Even if we lived in all respects according to 
 natural law ; not this artificial, furnace-heated, 
 nervous, hurrying existence, we should be 
 well, physically speaking. Any passing ill that 
 might then arise would be quickly cared for 
 by nature unaided. How much more we might 
 accomplish, however, if we had more knowl- 
 edge of the divine presence ! 
 
 While disagreeing with those who draw 
 distinctions which put the divine far from our 
 powers, we may well admit that there are dif- 
 ferent levels of manifestation, degrees of near- 
 ness to the divine, hence degrees of healing. 
 God is indeed near us in all nature, if we have 
 eyes and wisdom to discern His presence. He 
 
260 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 is far nearer in human social life, and in our 
 individual thought. He is nearer still in those 
 ineffable moments when in unison of feeling 
 we lose all sense of separateness from Him. 
 
 Again, it makes a difference whether or not 
 we are aware of the divine. All natural heal- 
 ing is in the profoundest sense divine, yet it 
 may seem like a merely physical process un- 
 less we approach it with a certain conscious- 
 ness. We are also divinely healed when the 
 mind is dispossessed of its errors, its anxie- 
 ties, fears and upheavals, however we may 
 seem to escape from these; but how much 
 greater is the sense of power when we know 
 the one source of all healing. Hence it is well 
 to take note of various types of thought in 
 accordance with their nearness to or remote- 
 ness from the divine. 
 
 It greatly matters, for example, whether 
 there is conscious dependence on the divine 
 love and wisdom or an assumption that the 
 human mind plays the decisive part as if God 
 did not exist. Mental healing based on hyp- 
 notism may be largely the impress of one mind 
 on another, although good results may be 
 wrought despite the attempt of the human will 
 to control. The same may be true of any ther- 
 apeutic practice in which an attempt is made 
 
LAWS OF DIVINE HEALING 261 
 
 to transmit thought to the mind of a sick per- 
 son. Again, mental healing may be superfi- 
 cial or ephemeral, its purpose being to dispel 
 fear, allay excitement, induce quietness, or re- 
 store confidence; just as you or I might con- 
 verse with another to convince him of his 
 folly without claiming divine aid. Or, it may 
 occur through affirmation by displacing annoy- 
 ing mental pictures in favor of those that rest 
 the mind and give peace. In a deeper sense 
 mental healing may look forward to something 
 more than the banishment of disease, and may 
 lead to the development of inner control or 
 poise. Thus its devotee may take up the reg- 
 ular practice of meditation, and endeavor to 
 understand and eliminate all disquieting con- 
 ditions of mind. This healing does not take 
 the place of natural restorative processes, but 
 fosters the type of life which most directly 
 accords with them. By employing such meth- 
 ods we may pass almost insensibly from men- 
 tal to spiritual healing, from ephemeral to per- 
 manent work. 
 
 Many who are now firm believers in divine 
 healing were wholly without faith in the di- 
 vine healing presence when they began to 
 break free from bondage to physical special- 
 ists and medicine. Then came a new depen- 
 
262 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 dence for a time, after they had acquired the 
 habit of visiting a mental healer whenever an 
 illness of any sort appeared. The next ad- 
 vance was perhaps through the realization that 
 an educational or regenerative process must 
 supplement the changes wrought through the 
 silent treatment. Thus social healing may 
 lead to self-healing and the latter to a realiza- 
 tion of the true meaning of healing. Once it 
 seemed to be a question of banishing haunting 
 mental pictures and fears, but now it becomes 
 a matter of attitudes, inner receptivity, regen- 
 erative faith. 
 
 By spiritual healing, then, in contrast with 
 mental healing, one means a process which 
 brings about a real, permanent change in the 
 inner life of the individual ; not the mere over- 
 coming of physical ills that may recur, or the 
 dismissal of errors not understood by the mind 
 that turns away from them. Whatever the 
 accompanying physical and mental ills, and the 
 processes by which they are overcome, a heal- 
 ing process becomes spiritual when the inner 
 life is decisively touched and changed; when 
 there is a change of attitude from hatred, an- 
 ger, distrust, despair, selfish emotion, self- 
 centeredness, or self-assertion, to an attitude 
 of faith, hope, love, confidence, or whatever 
 
LAWS OF DIVINE HEALING 263 
 
 uplifting spiritual state may be required to 
 overcome old habits. In this sense spiritual 
 healing is inseparable from moral rebirth. 
 Such healing must presently become conscious, 
 since it pertains to a person's character and 
 intelligence, and calls for thoughtful coop- 
 eration ; whereas mental healing may be most- 
 ly accomplished by another. Spiritual healing 
 may indeed begin through the ministrations 
 of another, and may involve what is called a 
 change of heart deeply affecting the religious 
 life as a whole. Whatever the instrumentality 
 or the results, the change is such that the some- 
 time sufferer, now quickened from within, is 
 no longer content to lead a life of bondage to 
 external, sensuous things. 
 
 Such a change is shown, for example, in 
 the daily habits, the tastes that become refined, 
 the opportunities sought for self-expression or 
 service. It is also manifested in the growth 
 of a composure not sought or attained through 
 mental control alone, but coming rather as one 
 of "the fruits of the Spirit," and as a constant 
 resource that can be drawn upon at will. 
 Again, it may be seen in a lessening of antag- 
 onisms, the relaxation of tensions, the dying 
 out of adverse criticism; and the attainment 
 of new attitudes of contentment, sympathy and 
 
264 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 charity. Such changes also come with the ac- 
 quisition of a philosophy which lifts all mat- 
 ters of moment to the level of reflective 
 thought. For he is spiritually healed who 
 learns the real causes of the changes he under- 
 goes, and who endeavors to conform to the 
 powers working through his nature for its 
 betterment. Thus he may come to believe in 
 time in the ever-present wisdom and love of 
 God in contrast with a former belief which 
 separated God and man. 
 
 Spiritual healing is distinguished from men- 
 tal healing because directly attributed to the 
 divine power as the real efficiency. This 
 means far more than the acceptance of a the- 
 ory regarding the restorative processes of mind 
 and body, it means an attitude and conviction 
 very different in type from the attitude 
 and theory of the mental healer. For the one 
 who attributes the efficiency to an immediate 
 manifestation of divine power on the spirit- 
 ual level regards himself as an instrument of 
 the divine wisdom. 1 Consequently, he endeav- 
 ors to cultivate the kind of life most in ac- 
 cord with the divine presence. Such consecra- 
 tion involves sure belief in the inward light, 
 ready to shine upon the particular pathway 
 
 1 This was Quimby's teaching. See above, Chap. V. 
 
LAWS OF DIVINE HEALING 265 
 
 and make known the wisest course for the oc- 
 casion. It implies something more than com- 
 placency or poise in oneself. It could hardly 
 be called receptivity or humility, for these are 
 apt to be negative. It calls for a particular 
 attitude of cooperation with divine leadings 
 in the endeavor to be a bearer of light in the 
 dark places of the world. It also implies faith 
 in inner or spiritual perception, the conviction 
 that the powers and conditions discerned 
 through such insight involve the deeper reali- 
 ties of life. 
 
 It is difficult to describe this attitude of co- 
 operation with the divine because it is attained 
 through personal experience involving certain 
 trials and failures. In contrast with therapeu- 
 tists who claim too much for the finite self, as 
 if the human will were the central efficiency, 
 one is apt to overdo one's humility and self- 
 effacement. In truth, one should not be any 
 less positive and affirmative but in a different 
 way. One may rightfully believe that the hu- 
 man self is an efficient instrument of divine 
 power and employ all the volitions of the self 
 with as much vigor as if the human will had 
 power of its own. Nothing short of this flood- 
 tide of activity will achieve the desired results 
 in crucial cases. But this activity is not of 
 
266 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 the sort that calls attention to itself. It may 
 spring out of the greatest calmness and peace. 
 Thought may be relatively quiescent. The 
 emotions may be wholly still. The point is 
 that the human spirit as a whole is active. 
 The spirit is "the heart" in us, that side of 
 man's nature which lies open to God, the im- 
 mortal part, "heir of the ages" and superior 
 to the trammels of sense. In other words, the 
 spirit is an individuation of God, manifesting 
 a divine purpose and serving others. Man is 
 never more truly himself than when most ac- 
 tive as a spiritual being. Yet in another sense 
 he is never so unobtrusive, never so free from 
 self-assertion and that independence of will 
 which closes the door to divine guidance. 
 
 There is a respect then in which one cannot 
 undertake to describe divine healing in its ful- 
 ness, or try to explain it. The highest cannot 
 be described, nor can it be explained, as we 
 ordinarily count explanation. For God is the 
 real healer, it is the divine love that heals. 
 Man is not immediately conscious of the cen- 
 tral activity which, on the divine side, is at 
 once wisdom and love, light and life, any more 
 than he is aware of the pure divine essence 
 that quickens men to pursue beauty or attain 
 ultimate truth. Man brings to the experience 
 
LAWS OF DIVINE HEALING 267 
 
 of divine communion a nature which may in- 
 deed be immediately one with this incoming 
 or ever-present life of the divine. We may 
 infer the existence of this nature from the re- 
 sults which ensue. But we do not feel all the 
 elements. When we learn to know the self 
 in this deeper sense we are already a stage 
 removed from pure immediacy. Instead of 
 knowing ourselves as single-hearted, we find 
 that we feel, we think, we will; we are actu- 
 ated by a prevailing love, by desires and pur- 
 poses; we differ in type, in capacity, in gifts. 
 What we feel and try to make our own has al- 
 ready taken on the forms of our nature, and 
 possibly we have impeded the divine flow to 
 some extent. Hence we are constrained to 
 say that there is more in the experience of 
 divine communion than we can describe. 
 What we omit may be the most important 
 element. Each must learn it from experience. 
 The same is true, however, in every other 
 field of human life where the self is seen at 
 its best. If, as Emerson assures us, we are 
 at our best when spontaneous, the element of 
 attention is lacking which must be present if 
 we are to tell whereof our virtue consists. 
 When we act more wisely than we know, and 
 speak more truly, we are both less and more 
 
268 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 than the conscious self of our other waking 
 moments. No one can reveal the whole se- 
 cret of his genius. 
 
 To apprehend the divine law of healing you 
 yourself must be touched by the divine love, 
 or be an agent of ministration to another. One 
 learns through experience to know the differ- 
 ence between a relatively external state and 
 one in which the divine life is more intimate- 
 ly present. It becomes a question of the atti- 
 tude of heart and will, thought and conduct 
 most in accord with the divine life, as one 
 thinks of that life in ideal terms. Hence the 
 emphasis one places on receptivity, openness, 
 readiness. It is plain that there must be con- 
 secration to the divine wisdom, with the belief 
 that it is adequate to meet the occasion. One 
 is ready to give or withhold, as one may be 
 led ; whereas the mental healer might be bent 
 on controlling the case in any event. One real- 
 izes that of oneself one has no efficiency. Yet 
 it is no less clear that one must believe in one's 
 true self as a means of communication in or- 
 der to be of any help at all. We are therefore 
 taking into account all that was said above 
 about natural restorative processes and mental 
 healing at its best, and lifting these considera- 
 tions to the divine level. For as we cannot 
 
LAWS OF DIVINE HEALING 269 
 
 dispense with the mental imagery, the realiza- 
 tions and ideals, we cannot omit the human 
 agency. That would be to think of the divine 
 as functioning in sheer emptiness, as if the 
 Holy Spirit were a kind of ghost. 
 
 We are in a certain situation in life, physi- 
 cally, mentally, morally, spiritually; in a cer- 
 tain environment, social atmosphere, surround- 
 ed by mental and other influences of which 
 we know but little; we have a certain voca- 
 tion, daily activities, interests, needs, prob- 
 lems. There is a wisdom in precisely this sit- 
 uation, a wisdom that is immanent in the situ- 
 tion itself; and we must not ignore this our 
 condition in seeking divine light. The divine 
 life is taking a certain course through us, is 
 moving toward an end with transcendent 
 providence and sustaining love. The prime 
 need for each of us is adjustment to the life 
 at hand, oftentimes to the very moment. This 
 cannot be an adjustment of will simply, since 
 there is intimate correspondence in two direc- 
 tions. 
 
 Our external or physical condition is open 
 to the influence of the natural world, and 
 thus there is a reason why we are just where 
 we find ourselves, with this particular inher- 
 itance. Our inner state is open to the influ- 
 
270 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 ence of the spiritual world, with all that this 
 implies; thus there is a reason why we are 
 spiritually as we are. Know yourself com- 
 pletely and you will know these influences, and 
 the wisdom of life's present situation. Know 
 the influences that affect, hinder, help and sus- 
 tain you; and you will understand yourself. 
 In the end it will be the truth that will set you 
 free, however urgently you may affirm your 
 freedom before you have seen the wisdom of 
 life as it is. You must learn to close the door 
 to some influences, to open them more widely 
 to others. 
 
 In order to think out our relationships to 
 these influences, we must begin far back, far 
 enough back so that we can ground our con- 
 sciousness in the thought of the Spirit and 
 hold fast to it, viewing the whole of life spir- 
 itually. What we need is a vision of the uni- 
 verse springing from the Spirit, taking form 
 in space and time, fulfilling the uses of ex- 
 ternal things, and yet having no life or reality 
 except through the Spirit. To adopt this point 
 of view is to regard all change, all life as pro- 
 ceeding outward, and all causality as spiritual. 
 Starting thus with the thought of God as the 
 inmost ground of all being, we realize in a 
 more intimate sense how profoundly true this 
 
LAWS OF DIVINE HEALING 271 
 
 is of man. We are essentially spiritual beings, 
 sons of God. We already dwell in the eternal 
 kingdom, we are in the spiritual world now, 
 sustained by heavenly powers. This our in- 
 most life is the truly real, permanent life, the 
 mode of being which will go on continuously 
 from the present through the change called 
 death. We are guided and strengthened in 
 this our interior life whether in the least de- 
 gree aware of it or not, and even though we 
 claim all decisive activity as our own. The 
 truth that sets us free is the knowledge of this 
 our inmost life as fundamentally real. Hence 
 it is well to accustom oneself to the point of 
 view by adopting it in thought, almost as if 
 nothing else were true, as if we were even 
 now in heaven among the angels, far from 
 this natural existence. 
 
 This inmost life is inclusive, however, of 
 our transitory existence, since it is through 
 this that we are brought to consciousness and 
 into freedom. Hence we need not call our 
 external life an illusion or dream. A dream 
 it is indeed if we walk about among these 
 mundane things as if they were imperishable 
 substances existing by themselves. A sheer 
 illusion it surely is if we attribute our suffer- 
 ings and our joys to these externals, as if the 
 
272 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 mind were a mere shadow of the brain. It is 
 unreal indeed if in any sense taken by itself, 
 instead of in the light of its proper place in 
 the scale of realities extending from the re- 
 sistant rock up through the flexibilities of the 
 atmosphere to the enduring beauty and power 
 of heavenly things. Nature is profoundly real 
 if viewed in the light of its gifts to the soul 
 of man, and the purposes which it fulfils. 
 Thus its obstinacy melts before us, its forces 
 assume the form of enlivening influences 
 meant for our good, and we look abroad up- 
 on it as in every sense friendly, akin to our 
 spirits far more than to our physical organs 
 and functions. 
 
 If we could always dwell consciously in the 
 inmost life, willing and thinking in accord 
 with the divine love and wisdom, the problems 
 of our existence would be solved. Our real 
 problem is to live from the center, from the 
 sources of supply within the heart, while still 
 mingling with our fellows in the world, com- 
 pleting the work which must be done before we 
 can be free. Caught within the enticements 
 and limitations of external existence, we seem 
 to be mere creatures of outward circum- 
 stances. Hence we retreat, give way to fear, 
 despondency. Hence the endless quest for ex- 
 
LAWS OF DIVINE HEALING 273 
 
 ternal causes of our afflictions, causes that 
 can never be found, and the search for reme- 
 dies that never can be discovered. But when 
 we view all these matters from within we 
 realize that they are fluid and responsive in 
 the presence of the Spirit, that it is Spirit and 
 not matter that creates. 
 
 The first great truth, then, is that the spir- 
 itual life is more real, is the life of causes; 
 that we stand where we do today because 
 of spiritual activities, whatever the appear- 
 ances may be. If these appearances show 
 that we are disturbed, unhealthy and in ex- 
 ternal misery generally, it may be difficult 
 at first to trace the connection between the 
 inner and the outer. But looking within we 
 discover after a time that we are drawn 
 in two directions. There are forces at work 
 to keep us precisely as we are, to hold 
 us in our habits, our creeds, our fixed atti- 
 tudes of judgment, our likes and dislikes; on 
 the other hand, there are creative, heavenly 
 powers gently leading us away. Living be- 
 tween, aware of the conflict but not of its 
 causes, we rebel and struggle, often opposing 
 the very powers that would set us free. It 
 seems a cruel affliction that we should thus 
 suffer, and we wander up and down over the 
 
274 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 face of the earth, seeking some one wise 
 enough to clear away the mystery of our suf- 
 fering. Wonderful to relate, there is no mys- 
 tery at all when we gain this inner vision. 
 For the suffering is not a reality in itself, nor 
 is any disease an independent reality. The 
 suffering is due to a certain combination of 
 forces all of which are good. We are igno- 
 rant, unaware of the real situation, we turn 
 from the hand that would set us free. It is 
 not necessary to go anywhere, to wait for 
 death or to try by some occult scheme to pene- 
 trate the spiritual world. All that we need is 
 another point of view with respect to that 
 which is most intimately at hand. 
 
 Try, then, to gain the vision. The divine 
 life by constant inflow, by sustaining love, by 
 guiding wisdom provides all that we need; is 
 most intimately near every pulse-beat, every 
 thought and affection. Not for a moment do 
 we exist without that inflow. Entering the 
 soul in the inmost recesses, it tends to spread 
 through our spiritual selfhood, into the ful- 
 ness of the mind, into all regions of the 
 nervous and physical systems. If we oppose 
 it at the center by fear, doubt, impatience, self- 
 assertion, or any of the other attitudes that 
 impede, we close the gate at the most unfor- 
 
LAWS OF DIVINE HEALING 275 
 
 tunate place. You realize that this is true 
 when you are torn by inner friction, distressed, 
 distraught, antagonistic toward some one. Be- 
 come placid. there, settle into restfulness and 
 trust, and you find that it makes all the differ- 
 ences in the world. Consider what must be the 
 divine ideal, with all its possibilities of health 
 and freedom, its gifts of goodness and powers, 
 the opportunities to lead the life of joyous 
 service. There is no space and time in this 
 ideal world. We are not separated by walls 
 or miles, by days or hours from the divine life. 
 God dwells not in space, nor in temples made 
 with hands. We dwell in Him, and these vis- 
 ible things we behold about us are so many 
 opportunities for thoughtful response, corre- 
 sponding to our inward states. Our real ex- 
 istence is the life of our inward states. Almost 
 in a twinkling these could be changed if we 
 could transfer our consciousness to the heav- 
 enly creative powers, giving ourselves in full 
 measure to the divine love and wisdom. Our 
 outward conditions would not change so 
 quickly, and there would be some which were 
 taken on long ago through inheritance that 
 belong wholly with this outer garment, some- 
 thing to be cast off. But the point of interest 
 is the inner center with the possibilities of 
 
276 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 renewal and of transformation open before us 
 there. 
 
 There is a sense in which everything we 
 need to make us morally and spiritually well, 
 to give us power over the physical organism 
 through the mind, is already true, and merely 
 waits to be seen. God as eternal spirit is here 
 now, man as finite spirit is here in a little spir- 
 itual world of his own, existent in the great 
 cosmos of spiritual beings. What we most 
 eagerly long for and need is already here, al- 
 ready real and true in the inmost sense. To 
 turn to the inmost is to put the soul in accord 
 with this the eternally true. Hence one dwells 
 on the ideal of health, harmony and freedom ; 
 one turns in thought to the divine peace, the 
 infinitely tender and all-loving heart, the all- 
 comprehending wisdom. One thinks of the 
 divine life as encompassing our own, hence of 
 the divine mind as knowing all that we see 
 and far more, knowing it all in relation, con- 
 sequently not as mere experience, sorrow or 
 suffering. Nothing is lost that is real even 
 for the natural man in rude contact with rock 
 or tree, with heat or cold, or the fury of the 
 whirlwind. What is gone is the merely ex- 
 ternal point of view, with the misconception 
 that grew out of it. The whirlwind is still 
 
LAWS OF DIVINE HEALING 277 
 
 there and the voice of God is heard therein, 
 but it is now "the still small voice'' that af- 
 fords the central clue. 
 
 Thus to distinguish without too greatly 
 separating the outer from the inner is to be 
 prepared to enter into the thought of the di- 
 vine presence so as to realize it with depth 
 and vividness. To realize the presence of God 
 in this intimate manner is not simply to think 
 about the divine nature, meanwhile permitting 
 one's thoughts to play at random in other 
 fields, but to detach one's consciousness from 
 outer activities and attach it to the idea of the 
 divine as a vivifying power, through feeling, 
 through actual experience. Thus there is a 
 distinct awareness of change from lower to 
 higher, a contrast between inner peace and all 
 outer turmoil. Yet the transition is not in- 
 duced through emotional intensity. Nor is 
 it the result of mere quiescence. The experi- 
 ence is more truly a return to the sources of 
 power in which the soul becomes at home, not 
 in mere submission, but in active relation to 
 a dynamic center. One's realization is that 
 whatever is needed is here, whatever power or 
 wisdom one would seek is already at hand 
 in the deep recesses of the inner world. Thus 
 all thought of remoteness in space or time is 
 
278 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 overcome in the uplifting consciousness that 
 there is but one world, the eternal spiritual 
 world of which outward and temporal things 
 are aspects only. 
 
 "Closer He is than breathing, 
 And nearer than hands and feet." 
 
 All figures of speech are inadequate which 
 undertake to exemplify the full relationship. 
 Even the symbol of the vine and the branches 
 fails us, and all symbols taken together. The 
 presence itself is transcendent, infinite, reach- 
 ing out beyond the bounds of all language, all 
 thought. The essence cannot be told. Yet 
 all these symbols and statements convey the 
 great truth in part. They suffice if they lift 
 our thought beyond the manifesting forms to 
 the Spirit that quickens them all, to the light 
 which shines through the lamp of the heart in 
 every human soul. Both light and lamp are 
 from the same source. The wisdom that is 
 discovered has fashioned the receptacle in 
 which it is found. The love that comes by 
 influx must come into a vital center, or is 
 found within that vital center, whichever way 
 you phrase the matter. The important con- 
 sideration in any case is that the divine is 
 within. 
 
LAWS OF DIVINE HEALING 279 
 
 The chief tendency to guard against when 
 we endeavor to realize the divine presence as 
 a healing power is diffusiveness or vagueness. 
 One's realization should be even more definite 
 than prayer as ordinarily employed. It may 
 become as concrete as the spoken word, the 
 single word, "peace." Indeed, the word is the 
 Spirit made definite, the creative word that 
 went forth to fashion the world, the word that 
 took form in the Bible, and became flesh in 
 "the son of man." Can you become inwardly 
 still enough to hear the creative word of the 
 Spirit calling you into power? Can you yield 
 your allegiance to physical things sufficiently 
 to transfer your full thought to the message 
 whispered in the inner ear? If you catch its 
 gentle cadences it may touch your whole being 
 with peace, and give you a feeling of new 
 life. Or, if listening for another's benefit, you 
 may well venture to speak with confidence the 
 word power that will arouse the dormant soul. 
 
 Recall the time when you were in bondage 
 to external things, hence to slight changes in 
 your physical feelings. Aware of the slightest 
 change in temperature, you laid aside your 
 wrap; a moment later, feeling slightly cool, 
 you drew your wrap around your shoulders 
 again; and so on through the day you re- 
 
280 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 sponded to physical feelings. If a slight illness 
 occurred, you attached a name to it, making 
 use of purely physical means to banish the 
 malady. This name was a symbol of your 
 bondage. You were totally unable to separate 
 between yourself and your states, your inner 
 states and your physical conditions ; say rather 
 that your mental life was a slave to your pass- 
 ing physical changes. But little by little you 
 have been able to make the separation, to ac- 
 quire an inner center, a point of view grow- 
 ing out of it, and a method of applying your 
 inward power so as to gain control of your 
 thought and emotions. Then came the great 
 discovery that you need not keep your Chris- 
 tianity for Sundays and for charity, but that 
 this inner pathway you have been following 
 is precisely the one Jesus bade men follow 
 that they might discern the kingdom "which 
 cometh without observation." 
 
 The Christianity of the Master, you remem- 
 ber, applied to the whole individual ; it touched 
 men's hearts to make them love their fellow- 
 men ; it touched men's minds to make them 
 think pure thoughts and will righteous deeds ; 
 and it summoned each person to go forth into 
 the world, carrying the lamp of the Spirit into 
 
LAWS OF DIVINE HEALING 281 
 
 the dark places. This message was to the 
 needy, to those who should be made whole. 
 
 Well may we ask what it means to be made 
 "whole" in the Christian sense. We are apt 
 to think of wholeness as physical health, or 
 as moral soundness according to the standards 
 of society. What if we should say that to 
 be made whole is to be self-consistent? This 
 proposition sends our thought rather far afield 
 for the moment, according to our view of the 
 human self. If you were self -consistent you 
 would no longer be greatly subject to any 
 circumstance or influence whatever, in any 
 social atmosphere you would be the same per- 
 son. And what is sameness or identity, how 
 many of us have thought it out to see in 
 what sense a person should seek to be one, 
 a whole or unit? Not until you relate your- 
 self to your brothers and to your Lord do you 
 make any headway whatever. You cannot 
 serve two masters. Your clue must be taken 
 from the divine purpose as nearly as you can 
 grasp it. That purpose is already like a single 
 thread running through your experiences from 
 the first fragmentary feelings up to the present 
 moment. You are one, you are whole from 
 that point of view. If you can catch the vision 
 you will have a sort of panorama of your life 
 
282 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 showing the divine providence in it all. For 
 even in your mistakes, your wanderings due 
 to your freedom, the divine wisdom was with 
 you. Come, then, to the center and gain the 
 vision. 
 
 Why is it, when the law is so plain, that we 
 make headway so slowly? There are various 
 reasons in different cases. Some of us have 
 not quite grasped the law : we strive too hard, 
 trying to accomplish too much in our own 
 might. The lesson is that through our whole 
 being the divine life is coursing, ready to set 
 us free, but impeded at points by our own 
 attitude, our volitions and thoughts. Let us 
 try then to be more truly open. Let us open 
 up and out from the center, somewhat as the 
 physical organism responds in the warm sun- 
 light and the fresh air, quickened by nature's 
 heat. The upward look of childlike affection 
 and receptivity is a great help, so is the out- 
 going affection when we forget ourselves for 
 another. We do not need to work in our own 
 might, but rather to make ourselves willing 
 instruments of heavenly wisdom and life. 
 The divine Spirit is really working within and 
 for us all the while. Are you ready to let 
 your life be lived for you, to be healed through 
 and through ? 
 
LAWS OF DIVINE HEALING 283 
 
 Again, there are those who do not make 
 effort enough, paradoxical as it may seem.- 
 These people grasp the idea in a way, they 
 want to know the divine presence, yet they do 
 not take a sufficiently pronounced attitude to 
 invite results. Creatures of habit and estab- 
 lished modes of thought, they do not realize 
 that the convincing experience of the divine 
 presence which those have who are able to 
 heal and to be healed, is acquired by going 
 apart to drop the outer world and separate 
 the inmost consciousness from physical sensa- 
 tion. They are thinking so much about ex- 
 ternal conditions, the needs and woes of 
 people, that they cannot yield their personal 
 activity long enough to give themselves to the 
 heavenly powers. The inner vision is no 
 mere gift of the moment bestowed on us while 
 we think and question, raising objections and 
 weighing difficulties ; it is a product of months 
 and years of steady interest and activity. 
 Some people, then, need to make a more rad- 
 ical step, willing to yield every cherished be- 
 lief for the one great possession. 
 
 Further still, there are those who have not 
 yet learned the difference between the mental 
 healing which rids the mind of certain of its 
 errors, fancies and haunting mental pictures, 
 
284 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 but does not touch the inner center, does not 
 solve the soul's problem; and that spiritual 
 healing which touches the soul. We gain help 
 on this point if we consider the difference be- 
 tween merely mental healing and the new 
 birth or spiritual regeneration. The simpler 
 and more superficial process may be compared 
 to the work of clearing a bit of woodland. 
 At first one rakes away the leaves to be 
 burned, trimming the trees here and there, 
 and cutting away the underbrush. Then the 
 severe work with the axe begins. What shall 
 root out the deepest obstacles? What is it 
 in our nature that needs most to be healed? 
 Is it of any avail to cut away on the outside, 
 while leaving the deep roots to spring into 
 activity again? Or shall we say that the 
 deeper roots need not be torn up but will be 
 transformed by a deep-lying life ready to 
 work within us when we have tried various 
 processes of pruning and given them up as 
 failures ? 
 
 It seems impossible to condemn the deeper 
 roots of our nature, as if our self-centered- 
 ness, wilfulness and other forms of selfishness 
 were absolutely wrong. Some of our attitudes 
 surely are wrong, and it is a positive help at 
 times to admit our failures, to learn the lesson 
 
LAWS OF DIVINE HEALING 285 
 
 of mistakes, clearing them away as we might 
 the dry leaves in our wood-lot. But the deep 
 root of the will springs from the divine love, 
 and the deep root of the understanding from 
 the divine wisdom. Look deeply enough and 
 you will find the point of view gradually 
 changing from the self that asserts, interferes 
 and becomes centered in its own affections to 
 the divine life that creates. To make this 
 transition is gradually to gain the vision of 
 which I have spoken, to lay down one's im- 
 pediments, ceasing to act as if from oneself, 
 and realizing that a great process of renewal 
 is going on. One feels like dropping on one's 
 knees in humility and gratitude at the dis- 
 covery. 
 
 We need, then, to be cured of our selfish- 
 ness, to be renewed by the transforming of 
 will and understanding from within ; and here 
 is the divine life engaged in that process. 
 When we gain the vision and look back, we 
 realize that many experiences which we took 
 to be struggles with a new disease recently 
 taken on were evidences of a deeper process, 
 casting to the surface whatever was impure. 
 Thus as we progressed the quickening life 
 touched nearer and nearer the center. Some 
 of us have been touched so to the quick that 
 
286 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 
 
 if we had not been sustained by a great peace 
 and faith we would have passed from this 
 natural world. Having passed through such 
 a testing-time, we know at last how constant 
 and thorough is the process, accomplishing 
 the changes as rapidly as we are able, bring- 
 ing severer tests when our faith is greater, 
 and steadily casting forth all that is not in 
 accord with the divine ideaL 
 
 Thus a time comes when we make almost 
 no exertion in the old-time way, by affirming, 
 by holding mental pictures, and reaching forth 
 to attain ideals. Instead, we maintain a quiet, 
 even attitude, inmostly at peace, ready for 
 any experience the divine life may bring. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 I. EARLY PERIOD— HISTORY. MENTAL 
 SCIENCE. 
 
 Evans, Warren F. : The Mental Cure, Boston, 1869; 
 
 Mental Medicine, 1872; Soul and Body, 1876; 
 
 The Divine Law of Cure, 1881 ; Primitive Mind 
 
 Cure, 1885; Esoteric Christianity, 1886. 
 Dresser, Julius A. : True History of Mental Science 
 
 (Quimby's discovery), Boston, 1887. 
 Root, Julia A. : Healing Power of Mind, San 
 
 Francisco, 1884. 
 Grimke, S. S. : Personified Unthinkables, 1884. 
 
 (Mental pictures; idealism.) 
 Titcomb, Sarah E. : Mind-cure on a Material Basis, 
 
 Boston, 1885. 
 Merriman, Helen B. : What Shall Make Us Whole? 
 
 Boston, 1887. 
 Barrows, Charles M. : Facts and Fictions of Men- 
 tal Healing, Boston, 1887. 
 Marston, L. M. : Essentials of Mental Healing. 
 
 Boston, 1887. 
 Gill, Wm. I.: Christian Pneumatopathy, Boston, 
 
 1887. 
 Colville, W. J.: The Spiritual Science of Health 
 
 and Healing, 1887, etc. 
 Barnett, M. J.: Practical Metaphysics, 1889, etc. 
 
 (Mental science and theosophy.) 
 289 
 
290 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Cramer, Malinda E. : Lessons in Science and Heal- 
 ing, etc. (Pioneer in divine-science phase, San 
 Francisco.) 
 
 Van Anderson, Helen: The Right Knock, 1889; 
 Journal of a Live Woman, etc. (Established 
 Church of the Higher Life, Boston.) 
 
 Dewey, John Hamlin : Pathway of the Spirit, 1890; 
 The Way, the Truth and the Life, etc. 
 
 Mental Healing Monthly (first mental science peri- 
 odical published in Boston). 
 
 Mental Science Magazine, edited by A. J. Swartz, 
 Chicago. 
 
 Christian Metaphysician, edited by Geo. B. Charles, 
 Chicago, 1887-1897. 
 
 Wayside Lights, edited by L. C. Graham and other 
 pioneers, Hartford, Ct. 
 
 Harmony, edited by M. E. Cramer, San Francisco, 
 1889-1906. 
 
 Thought, forerunner of Unity, edited by Chas. Fill- 
 more, Kansas City. (Practical Christianity 
 phase.) 
 
 II. MIDDLE PERIOD— NEW THOUGHT. 
 
 Wood, Henry: Edward Burton, Boston, 1890 (New 
 Thought novel) ; Ideal Suggestion through Men- 
 tal Photography, 1894; God's Image in Man; 
 The New Thought Simplified; The Symphony 
 of Life; New Old Healing, etc. 
 
 Cady, Emilie: Lessons in Truth; Finding the Christ 
 in Ourselves, etc., Kansas City. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 291 
 
 Gestefeld, Ursula : The Builder and the Plan, etc. ; 
 
 editor of Exodus. 
 Whiting, Lillian: The World Beautiful, etc., Bos- 
 ton. 
 Wilmans, Helen: The Blossom of the Century, 
 
 etc.; Wilman's Express. 
 Kohaus, Hannah M. : Between the Lines, Chicago. 
 Mulford, Prentice: White Cross Library 
 
 ("Thoughts Are Things.") 
 Mills, Anna W. : Practical Metaphysics, Chicago, 
 
 1896. 
 Dresser, Annetta G. : The Philosophy of P. P. 
 
 Quimby, Boston, 1895. 
 Yarnall, Jane: Practical Healing for Mind and 
 
 Body, Chicago. 
 Whipple, Leander E. : The Philosophy of Mental 
 
 Healing, 1893; The Metaphysical Magazine, 
 
 New York. (Specific image treatment. School 
 
 of metaphysics.) 
 Patterson, Chas. B. : New Thought Essays, etc.; 
 
 Mind, monthly, New York, 1898-1906. 
 New Thought, The, monthly, Melrose, Mass., 1894- 
 
 1898. (First publication using name New 
 
 Thought.) 
 Journal of Practical Metaphysics, organ of Boston 
 
 Metaphysical Club, edited by H. W. Dresser, 
 
 1896-1898; merged in The Arena. 
 Life, The, monthly, edited by A. P. Barton, Kansas 
 
 City, 1897-1908. 
 Universal Truth, monthly, edited by Fanny M. Har- 
 
 ley, Chicago. 
 
292 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Eleanor Kirk's Idea, monthly, edited by Mrs. E. 
 Ames, author of Perpetual Youth, etc., Brooklyn. 
 
 Trine, Ralph Waldo: What All the World's a- 
 Seeking, New York, 1899; In Tune With the 
 Infinite, etc. 
 
 Newcomb, Chas. B.: All's Right With the World, 
 Boston, 1898. 
 
 Winkley, J. W. : First Lessons in New Thought ; 
 Practical Ideals, monthly, Boston, 1900-1912. 
 
 Dresser, H. W. : The Power of Silence, 1895 (based 
 on the Quimby philosophy) ; The Higher Law, 
 monthly, Boston, 1899-1902; etc. 
 
 Sprague, Frank H. : Spiritual Consciousness, Bos- 
 ton, 1898. 
 
 Seward, F. J.: Spiritual Knowing, 1901. 
 
 III. LATER PERIOD. 
 
 Wilcox, Ella Wheeler: Heart of New Thought; 
 Faith; Hope, etc. (New Thought poet.) 
 
 Towne, Elizabeth: Experiences in Self-Healing; 
 Lessons in Living; How to Use New Thought 
 in Home Life, etc.; Nautilus, monthly, Holyoke, 
 Mass., 1902-. 
 
 New Thought, monthly, Chicago, 1902-1910. 
 
 Power, monthly, edited by Chas. E. Prather, Den- 
 ver, 1911-. 
 
 Now, monthly, edited by H. H. Brown, San Fran- 
 cisco, 1902-. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 293 
 
 Troward, Judge: Edinburgh Lectures on Mental 
 Science, Dore Lectures; Creative Process in the 
 Individual. (English pioneer and leader.) 
 
 Allen, J. L. : As a Man Thinketh, etc. 
 
 Allen, Able L. : Message of New Thought. 
 
 Militz, A. R. : The Sermon on the Mount ; Primary 
 Lessons in Christian Living and Healing, etc.; 
 editor, The Master Mind, monthly, Los Angeles. 
 (Founder "Homes of Truth.") 
 
 Rix, Harriet Hale: Christian Mind Healing, Los 
 Angeles. 
 
 Douglass, R. C. : Spiritual Evolution or Regenera- 
 tion, Boston, 1905. 
 
 Ellsworth, Paul: Direct Healing, Gist of New 
 Thought, etc., Holyoke, Mass. 
 
 Marden, O. S.: The Miracle of Right Thought; 
 Peace, Power and Plenty, etc., New York. 
 
 Mills, Jas. P. : Illumination Spiritual Healing, New 
 York. 
 
 Spinney, William A.: Health Through Self-Con- 
 trol, Boston. 
 
 Atkinson, W. W. : Mind and Body; New Thought: 
 Its History and Principles (attributes New 
 Thought to the liberal movement, not to the 
 mental healing pioneers) ; Advanced Thought, 
 monthly, Chicago. 
 
 Crane, Aaron M. : Right and Wrong Thinking, 
 etc. 
 
 Wilson, Floyd B. : Paths to Power, etc., 1901. 
 
 Brown, Grace M. : Think Right ; Mental Harmony, 
 New York, 1916; The Essene, monthly, Denver. 
 
294 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Bradbury, Harriet B. : The New Philosophy; The 
 Light That Is in Thee, etc., Boston. 
 
 Fillmore, Chas. : Christian Healing, etc. ; Unity, 
 
 monthly, Kansas City. 
 
 Gleaner, The, edited by W. John Murray, New York. 
 
 Dresser, H. W.: Health and the Inner Life, 1906 
 (historical) ; Handbook of the New Thought, 
 New York, 1917 (exposition; definition; esti- 
 mate; allied lines of thought). 
 
 IV. ALLIED SUBJECTS. 
 
 Tuke, Daniel H. : The Influence of the Mind on 
 the Body, London, 1884 (medical). 
 
 Carpenter, W. B. : Mental Physiology, New York, 
 1876. (Unconscious cerebration.) 
 
 Fletcher, Horace: Menticulture, 1899, etc. (Power 
 of thought.) 
 
 Hudson, Thos. J. : The Law of Psychic Phenomena, 
 Chicago, 1894; Scientific Demonstration of the 
 Future Life; The Law of Mental Medicine, 
 etc. (The author overemphasizes the contrast 
 between the objective and subjective, as if we 
 had two minds; is not guided by actual experi- 
 ence in mental healing.) 
 
 Buckley, J. M. : Faith Healing, Christian Science, 
 and Kindred Phenomena, 1892. (Historical, 
 critical.) 
 
 Besant, Annie: Thought Power: Its Control and 
 Culture. (Theosophy.) 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 295 
 
 Schofield, A. T.: The Force of Mind; The Un- 
 conscious Mind, etc. (Psychotherapy.) 
 
 DuBois, P.: The Psychic Treatment of Nervous 
 Disorders. (Based on physiological psychology 
 and determinism.) 
 
 Milmine, Georgine: The Life of M. B. G. Eddy. 
 (Historical, accurate.) 
 
 Worcester, Ell wood: Religion and Medicine, New 
 York, 1908 (first book on the Emmanuel Move- 
 ment) ; The Christian Religion as a Healing 
 Power, 1909. 
 
 Powell, Lyman : The Emmanuel Movement in a 
 New England Town. 
 
 MacDonald, R.: Mind, Religion, and Health, 1908. 
 
 Brown, Chas. R.: Faith and Health, 1910; The 
 Healing Power of Suggestion, 1916. 
 
 Fallows, S. : Health and Happiness, 1908. 
 Huckel, Oliver: Mental Medicine, 1909. 
 
 Sadler, W. S. : The Physiology of Faith and Fear, 
 Chicago, 1912. (A physician's correction of 
 mental healing.) 
 
 Munsterberg, Hugo: Psychotherapy, 1909. (A ma- 
 terialistic interpretation; denies the existence 
 of the subconscious.) 
 
 Severn, Elizabeth : Psychotherapy, Philadelphia, 
 1914. (An intelligent study by a physician who 
 has successfully applied mental healing.) 
 
 Cobb, Rev. W. F. : Spiritual Healing, London, 1914. 
 (Partly historical, regards the subject from the 
 outside.) 
 
296 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Bbuce, H. Addington: Scientific Mental Healing, 
 Boston, 1911. (Traces the history with a view- 
 to showing superiority of psychotherapy, over- 
 looks inner values of New Thought.) 
 
 Ernest, Jones : Papers on Psycho- Analysis, New 
 York, 1916. (A typical work by a devotee of 
 Dr. Sigmund Freud of the psycho-analytic 
 school.) 
 
 Randall, Rev. J. Hermann: A New Philosophy of 
 Life, etc. (Excellent and sympathetic.) 
 
 Cutten, Geo. B. : The Psychological Phenomena 
 of Christianity, New York, 1908; Three Thou- 
 sand Years of Mental Healing, 1911. (Fails 
 to see the inner connection between Christianity 
 and spiritual healing.) 
 
 Purinton, E. E. : Efficient Living. (Popular study 
 of mental efficiency.) 
 
 •Mason, Dr. Osgood: Telepathy and the Subliminal 
 Self. 
 
 James, William: Varieties of Religious Experience 
 (estimates the New Thought as "The Religion 
 of Healthy-mindedness") ; Pragmatism (method 
 of testing ideas by reference to experience) ; 
 Psychology, Briefer Course (shows dependence 
 of mind on body) ; The Will to Believe (shows 
 power and freedom of the will). 
 
 Mann, Rev. Chas. : Psychiasis (interprets mental 
 healing from Swedenborg's point of view). 
 
 Hepher, Rev. Cyril: The Fellowship of Silence; 
 The Fruits of Silence, London, 1916. (A high 
 churchman's appeal for silence, with practical 
 emphasis on inner experience.) 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 297 
 
 Courtenay, Rev. Chas. : The Empire of Silence, 
 New York, 1916. (Comprehensive study of 
 silence in all its bearings save the intimate rela- 
 tion to healing; overlooks practical values of 
 mysticism.) 
 
 Riley, Woodbridge: American Thought from Puri- 
 tanism to Pragmatism, New York, 1915. (Gives 
 the background of transcendentalism, etc., but 
 overlooks the inner meaning of the healing 
 movement.) 
 
 Coe, Geo. A.: The Spiritual Life, New York, 1900 
 (contains study of divine healing) ; The Psy- 
 chology of Religion, Chicago, 1916 (misses the 
 interior values of spiritual experience; chiefly 
 valuable for its comprehensive bibliography). 
 
 Leuba, James H. : New York, 1912. (Regards 
 mental healing movement sympathetically as a 
 recent form of religion.) 
 

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