The Life Magnet Volume 3 by Robert Collier

Book Description
This is part of a set of 7 books that Robert Collier published in 1928 as a follow-up series to his highly successful "Secret of the Ages.". The first 2 books in this series were entitled "The Secret of Gold", and the remaining 5 were entitled "The Life Magnet." Original copies of this series are now very hard to find.

The chapter titles of this volume are:

Chapter 1 - What Are We Here For?

Chapter 2 - Prayer

Chapter 3 - The Unpardonable Sin

Chapter 4 - The Covenant

Chapter 5 - The Sowers

What These Books Will Do for You

"The Life Magnet" will show you how to get what you want--how to draw to yourself riches and power just as surely as the magnet draws to itself every filing of iron that comes within its reach. There is nothing of good you can ask for, that it cannot bring you.

Scientists tell us, you know, that all mankind is created equal----that the brain of one man is exactly the same as that of another. The only difference between a failure and a successful man is that the successful man's brain is more developed.

But here is the important part--These scientists tell us that no man has found the way to use more than one tenth of the giant power of his brain. And the prime purpose of "The Life Magnet" is to point out in plain language the way to harness the vast reserve power of this Giant Inside You--the way to use it to bring you whatever you want.

There are no vague theories in these books. They show you first just what is this giant unused power within you, then how to reach it and finally how to make it work for you every day and hour.

"Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." —Isaiah 60:1.

ONE of the early Christian missionaries to Britain was addressing a conclave of the tribes, gathered at night in a rude hall, made of branches covered with skins and open at each end. He spoke eloquently of the one God. He told them of the Saviour. He pictured the joys of a future life.

As he finished, suddenly out of the night there swooped a great bird, fluttered for a moment over their heads, then disappeared into the blackness beyond.

"You tell us of one God," he said. "We believe in another. You tell us of a Heaven where the just and the meek go. We believe in a Valhalla for the brave and the fair. But who has ever come back from beyond to say which is right?

"Life is like that bird which flew through here. It comes from none knows whence. It stays with us an all too brief moment, then goes none knows whither. Tell me if you can—what is it all about? What are we here for?"

That is the old, old question. What are we here for? Philosophers have wrangled over it since time began. And few indeed have been the acceptable answers.

But one thing we can be sure of—we are put on this earth to progress. All through history, all through nature, all through life, we can see evidences of this on every side. Whenever a nation becomes too self-satisfied, whenever a man or an institution walls himself around to shut out new ideas, whenever a plant stops growing—it is a sure sign of decay and death. We must go forward—or die. We can't stand still. Time is ever moving. We must keep up with it—or perish.

Professor Michael Pupin, famous scientist, in an interview published in the American Magazine, says: "Science finds that everything is a continuously developing process. It reveals man as a being with a soul which is progressing more and more toward Divinity.

"Here's my opinion. . . our Physical life is only a stage in the existence of the soul. . . . The human soul goes on existing—and developing—after death."

What do you live for? You might ask nine-tenths of the people in the world, and all they could tell you would be: to work to buy food and clothing and shelter, so I may gain strength to work tomorrow to buy more food and clothing and shelter. And that is as far as most of them ever get. The endless round of work and eat and sleep, and work and eat and sleep. Is that worth living for? Is that any preparation for a future life?

Suppose you sent your son to a preparatory school that was to make him ready for College. And instead of giving him the studies necessary for his College entrance, the school taught him only carpentering, or bricklaying, or plastering, or common day labor. What would you think of it as a preparatory school for College?

If our life here is anything, it is a preparation for the life to come. It is a preparatory school. You are taught Greek in school—not because you expect ever to speak it, not even because some of our words are derived from Greek roots, but because of the valuable mental training its study gives you. Every College student must learn higher mathematics, even though not one in a hundred ever will use anything but the plainest arithmetic. Why? For mental training.

We go through experiences here on earth which apparently have no purpose, no good in them. We are given obstacles to overcome, trials and tribulations to fight our way through. Why? To give us something we may take with us to the other side—Character.

"It is written in the Prophets, and they shall be all taught of God."—John 6:45.

To quote Dr. Pupin again—"Everything that happens in this great universe is for a purpose; and that purpose is the development of the human soul."

Accounting, engineering, mechanics, law, business—none of these in itself is going to do us any good over there. It is what the use of it adds to our perceptive faculties that counts.

It is an unknown country "over there." There are no telephones, no electric lights, no automobiles, no courts, no factories, no stores. To regard our ordinary avocations as preparation for the hereafter is as though a man with a perfect knowledge of typewriters—and nothing else—were set down in the middle of the Amazon jungle and left there to live or die. Unless he had learned something else from his tinkering with typewriters besides mechanics, he would be in a bad way.

But tinkering with typewriters—or any other job—does teach higher things to the man ready or willing to receive them. It teaches patience, perseverance, honesty, pride in work well done. All the attributes that, summed up, spell S-E-R-V-I-C-E.

That is something which is as welcome in the Brazilian wilds as here. It is something which pays dividends on the other side of the River Styx just as surely as on this—the attitude of mind which is always looking for the best way, the most effective way to SERVE others—to make the world a better place for his having been in it.

"And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever."—Daniel 12:3.

Stewart Edward White had a story in the May American of a man who, to all intents, had died. And in that hazy limbo between the new world and this, the thing that worried him was his utter nakedness—his complete lack of any trait he might carry over from our world into the beyond.

"Here is how it seemed to me; "There I was, temporarily inactive, but convinced that sooner or later would participate in whatever there was. And I knew there was something to participate in. There was an environment. I couldn't become cognizant of it because I had not the proper development to possess senses that would take it in. I had no equipment. I was like a baby.

"It came to me with rather a shock of illumination that my appreciation of even this much was due solely to the fact that I had gotten something spiritual out of my earth life.

"Perception was one of them. And I realized with a kind of sinking feeling that if I had not brought over that much, I would probably be unconscious—perhaps just dormant like a seed, waiting for something to germinate me."

"Waiting for something to germinate me." Isn't that the way most of us are even here—waiting for some force outside ourselves to come along and start us into action? Are we going to carry that same inactivity, that same lack of initiative over to the other side? We will unless we speedily learn to bestir ourselves.

A noted criminal judge once said that he had yet to meet the man who had not some good in him, some redeeming trait. He thought once he had found him—a man hard as iron, a murderer and a thief.

Yet out in the chain gang, working on the roads, that man risked crippling or death to save a little child!

So we all take something with us across the Great Divide, something that, with sufficient exercise and help, may germinate there and enable us to grow in time to the stature of God's children. But how much we have to start on and how fast we grow, depends upon the faculties we acquire here that are of use on the other side.

In the gold rush to the Klondike in the Fall of 1898, no man was allowed across the Chilkoot Pass unless he carried with him $1,000 and a ton of provisions. The Canadian authorities wanted no "foolish virgins" on their hands to provide for. Each man must carry with him the requisite money and provisions to supply him through the winter—or go back home.

Death is the Chilkoot Pass across which each soul must travel to reach the Land of Promise beyond. But there are no Northwest Mounted Police to turn you back if you cross without provisions and without equipment. You are allowed to go through—but not to the Promised Land, To Hell instead.

That Hell is not a place of fire and brimstone. Rather it is one of darkness and loneliness. Those in it have failed to carry over any perceptive faculties, and without them they cannot find their way to the Promised Land.

Do you know what "Hell" means? The word used for it in the New Testament is "Gehenna," and it comes from the Vale of Hinnom, which was a dump-heap outside the city walls of Jerusalem.

Hell is the place for waste and useless material. Hell is the place for those who cross the Great Divide without anything that can make them useful on the other side. Hell is the dump-heap of useless souls.

At a little wayside station up in Northern Michigan, a lumber jack was waiting, an old grain sack over his shoulder with his spare clothes and belongings in it. Seeing a fellow traveler eyeing the meager load, he explained tersely—"This old sack holds all I've been able to accumulate in sixty-two years."

What is in your sack? What have you that you can take with you over the Great Divide? Blue blood won't help, you know. Nor a bank account. Eloquence or mechanical skill or salesmanship count for nothing in the country beyond.

What have you added to the world's knowledge? What have you done to help your fellow man? What noble thoughts have you added to your mental store, what kindly deeds, what unselfish service?

Those are the things that count "over there." Those are the riches you can take with you to clothe your nakedness, to start you in your new life, to give you that faculty of "Perception" which shall enable you to see your way to the Promised Land.

"He that findeth his life shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it."—Matthew 10:39. In other words, he that works only for his own aggrandizement shall lose all that he makes. But he that loses all thought of self in the service of others shall thereby serve himself, too!

What is that you say? You have been one of God's poor all your life? What good is that? The poor have no better chance over there than have the rich. The ceaseless grind for a bare livelihood is as stunting to the soul as the ceaseless grind for wealth. There must be more to your life than that. There must be a ceaseless search for the wealth of the soul, a ceaseless reaching out to God, a ceaseless effort for understanding and knowledge of the Father. "Acquaint now thyself with Him and be at peace. Thereby good shall come unto thee."— Job 22:21.

The Father is not poor. He is not sick or weak or afflicted. And He is not proud of any of His children who boast of such gifts as coming from Him.

The Father has all riches, all power, all life, and those who "acquaint themselves with Him" share in His gifts. When you live in the Father, it will make little difference to you whether you live in Him on this plane of existence or another. When you depend on His bountiful law of supply for your subsistence, on His love and protection for your happiness, you will know that "My God shall supply all your needs, according to His riches."—Philippians 4:19.

I read the other day of a mother whose daughter was killed in an automobile accident, just after she had begun a wonderfully useful work. Did the mother repine? Did she sit down and waste away with grief?

No—she decided that the way she could best help her daughter was to carry on her work for her. She would take her daughter's place. In spirit, in planning, in everything she did, she tried to put all her daughter's energy and her daughter's efforts into the work, with the result that not only is the work itself a complete success, but the mother is a new woman—rejuvenated and happy. Her daughter lives again in her.

And if there is any way that the souls of the departed can be helped, if the faculties they have carried over with them can be made to germinate from without, that is the way—to carry on for them here the work that would have developed those, very faculties.

When father or mother or loved one dies, prayer may help them, but far better than wordy petitions is to send them riches they can use in the world beyond—the riches of service you are doing in this world in their name.

When Marshall Field died he left the bulk of his fortune to his children. But it was not to be given them at once. Part they were to receive immediately. The rest only as they proved themselves ready and worthy. When they did so-and-so, they were to receive such-and-such.

The Father above left a far vaster fortune to each of us than that acquired by Marshall Field. But He put the same restrictions upon it. All are given a certain amount without effort, but thereafter, we receive only as we prove the law. There is no limit to the amount of the fortune. The only limit is in our ability to prove ourselves ready to receive it.

The glory of life is in our mastery of it. We are put here to prove ourselves—to wash away the dross, to refine the gold in the fire—and to the extent that we prove ourselves, to that extent we win to the Kingdom of Heaven, here and hereafter.

For the Kingdom of Heaven is not some occult place we can enter only through the gates of death. On the contrary, unless we can win to some measure of it here, we shall find it a long, hard trail to win to it in the hereafter.

"The Kingdom of Heaven is within you," said Jesus. Until He came, mankind had been taught that circumstances were the result of causes outside ourselves. Jesus showed that all circumstances are within our own control. Instead of being under the control of some malign fate, under the influence of some natal star, the reverse is true. "And he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations, and I will give him the morning star."—Revelations 2:26-28.

But granting that the Kingdom of Heaven is within us, what is it? "The Kingdom of God is as if a man should cast seed into the ground," said Jesus, "and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself: first the blade, then the ear, and after that the full corn in the ear."—Mark 4:26-28.

To go back to the man in White's story: "I used to know a man who suffered a stroke of paralysis. All he could move was two fingers in his left hand. Instead of getting discouraged, he said to himself: 'Well, all right, I'll move those two fingers!' So he did. And by and by he found he could move the next finger. Today he's almost as good as ever.

"That's the way I felt. I got a sudden glowing conviction that if I exercised what faculties I had, I'd speedily develop more faculties."

The seed of the Kingdom of Heaven is love—unselfish love. The stalk is service. The golden grain is riches and happiness. The stronger the stalk—the more ears of golden grain.

"Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven, and all those things shall be added unto you," said Jesus.—Matthew 7:33. Seek first the seed of love, plant it in the soil of work, water it with genuine interest in your fellow man, and the stalk of service will speedily spring up, to bring forth golden grains of reward.

"The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a treasure hid in a field, the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field."—Matthew 13:44.

When a man learns the joy of genuine service, he will gladly give up all that he has for it. He will guard it jealously as his dearest treasure.

Henry Ford was offered a billion dollars for the Ford Company. He refused it. Not because he wanted to make more money—a billion dollars are more than any man can spend in one lifetime, more than he wants to leave to his children—but because that company represented to him the most valuable thing in life, his means of service to his fellow-man.

Hundreds of men have refused the most generous offers for their businesses—for the same reason. To the extent to which you find that reason—to that same extent you have justified your existence, to that same extent you have discovered the Kingdom of God.

Hold on to it, for as much of it as you take with you across the Great Divide—that much will serve you as seed to plant on the other side, seed that will germinate and grow and bring forth an ever more abundant harvest.

Don't let it slip from your fingers merely because you have already reaped a golden harvest. That is the very time you can sow most surely for the future. You no longer need to worry about money. Now you can sow for happiness.

So, you millionaires and successful men about to retire—take heed! There is no retiring. You must keep going forward—or lose what you have. Perhaps not in money, but in that which is far more valuable than money—the seed you are to take to the other side.

That seed decays with disuse. Keep sowing it—and reaping it—and what you no longer need to sow for riches, sew for happiness instead. You will find that harvest not only more bountiful, but more satisfying and more easily carried over the Great Divide.

It is not necessary that you stick at your desk. It is not even necessary that you stick at your business. But it is necessary that you hold on to the idea of service to your fellow men.

What are we here for? To discover the Kingdom of Heaven —to carry its seed with us into the next great phase of existence.

"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things."

"And behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be."