Chapter 1 - THE LAW OF
INCREASE
IN A PAMPHLET written by Don Blanding, he tells of a time during the
trying years of the Great Depression, when he found himself
financially, mentally and physically
"broke." He was suffering from insomnia and from a physical lethargy
amounting almost to
paralysis. Worst of all, he had a bad case of "self-pity," and he felt
that the self-pity was fully
justified.
He was staying at a small Art Colony (on credit), trying to rebuild his
wrecked life and wretched body. Among those at the Colony was Mike, an
Hawaiian boy. Mike seemed
to be always cheerful. Mike seemed to be always prosperous. And,
naturally, Blanding wondered
why. For Mike, when he had known him before, had been blessed with few
of this world's
goods.
So one day he asked Mike what good fairy had waved her wand over him
and turned all that he touched into gold.
For answer, Mike pointed to a string of letters he had pasted over his
bed--"L-I-D-G-T-T-F-T-A-T-I-M."
Blanding read them, but could make no sense out of them. "What are
they, the 'Open, Sesame' to the Treasure Cave?"
"They have been the 'Open, Sesame' for me," Mike told him, and went on
to explain how they had helped him. It seems that Mike, too, had
experienced his ups and downs,
but in the course of one of his "downs," he had happened upon a teacher
who showed him the power of
PRAISE and THANKFULNESS.
"There is an inherent law of mind," says Charles Fillmore, "that we
INCREASE whatever we PRAISE. The whole of creation responds to praise,
and is glad. Animal
trainers pet and reward their charges with delicacies for acts of
obedience; children glow with
joy and gladness when they are praised. Even vegetation grows better
for those who love it. We can
praise our own ability, and the very brain cells will expand and
increase in capacity and
intelligence, when we speak words of encouragement and appreciation to
them."
God gave you dominion over the earth. Everything is your servant, but
remember it is said in the Scriptures that God brought every beast and
fowl to Adam,
to see
what he would call them. You are like Adam in this, that you can
give to everything and everybody with whom you come in contact the name
you like. You can call them good or bad. And whatever
you call them, that is what they will be--good servants or evil. You
can praise or curse them,
and as you do, so will they
be to you.
There is one unfailing Law of Increase--"
Whatever is praised and
blessed, MULTIPLIES!" Count your blessings and they increase. If
you are in need of supply, start
in now to praise every small piece of money that comes to you, blessing
it as a symbol of God's
abundance and love. Salute the Divinity represented by it. Bless Him
and name Him Infinite and
Abundant Supply. You will be
surprised how soon that small piece of money will increase to many
pieces. Take God into your business. Bless your store, bless everyone
that works for you, each
customer that comes in. Know that they represent the Divinity called
Abundance, so bless them as
such.
If you are working for someone else and want a better job or more pay,
start by BLESSING and being THANKFUL
for what you have. Bless
the work you are doing,
be thankful for every opportunity it gives you to acquire greater skill
or ability or to
serve others. Bless the money you earn, no matter how little it may be.
Be so thankful to God for it that
you can give a small "Thank Offering" from it to someone in greater
need than yourself.
Suppose the Boss does seem unappreciativc and hard. Bless him just the
same. Be thankful for the opportunity to SERVE faithfully, no matter
how small the immediate
reward may seem to be. Give your best, give it cheerfully, gladly,
thankfully, and you will be
amazed how quickly the INCREASE will come to you--not necessarily from
your immediate boss,
but from the Big Boss over all.
I remember reading a letter from a woman in the drought belt in which
she said that they, unlike most of their neighbors, had an abundant
supply of water, and excellent
crops. "When my husband plows a field," she writes, "I ask God to bless
each furrow. Each seed
that goes into the seeder is blessed, and the realization held that it
will produce abundantly
according to His righteous law. Our neighbors marveled at the abundance
of hay that we cut this year.
The hay was sold before the third cutting was put up.
"Each day, in the silence, I put the ranch 'Lovingly in the hands of
the Father.' I ask God to bless everybody that comes in contact with
the ranch."
Few realize the power of praise and blessing. Praise may be called the
great liberator. You remember the story of Paul and Silas. They lay in
jail bound with
chains, but they did not despair. They rejoiced and sang hymns of
praise, and lo, the very walls were
shaken down and they were set free.
Praise always magnifies. When we praise God and then look about us and
praise His invisible presence in all that we see, we find that the good
is so magnified that
much becomes evident that we ordinarily fail to see. Running through
all of Jesus Christ's acts
as well as His teachings we find the glowing element of praise. When He
looked at five loaves and two
small fishes and realized that He had a multitude to feed, His first
thought was a thought of
praise. "And looking up to heaven, he blessed."
Go back over the Old Testament and see how often you are adjured to
"Praise the Lord and be thankful, that THEN shall the earth yield her
increase." Probably no
life chronicled in the Scriptures was more beset with trials and
dangers that that of King
David. And what was his remedy? What brought him through all
tribulations to power and riches?
Just read the Psalms of David and you will see.
"If anyone could tell you the shortest, surest way to all happiness and
all perfection," wrote William Law, "he must tell you to make it a rule
to yourself to thank
and praise God for everything that happens to you. For it is certain
that whatever seeming calamity
happens to you, if you thank and praise God for it, you turn it into a
blessing. Could you therefore
work miracles, you could not do more for yourself than by this thankful
spirit; for it turns all
that it touches into happiness."
How then can YOU increase your supply? How can you get more of riches
and happiness and every good thing of life? In the same way as the Wise
Men and the
Prophets of old. In the same way that Jesus twice fed the multitudes.
In the same way that He filled
the disciples' nets to overflowing with fish, after they had labored
all night and caught
nothing.
By EXPANDING what you have! And the way to expand is through love,
through praise and thanksgiving--through saluting the Divinity in it,
and naming it
Infinite and Abundant Supply.
Throughout the Bible we are told--"In everything by prayer and
supplication WITH THANKSGIVING let your requests be made unto God."
Again and again the
root of inspiration and attainment is stressed.
Rejoice, be glad,
praise, give thanks!
And that was what our Hawaiian boy had done. That was the secret of his
prosperity and success. The Talisman he had pasted over his bed
meant--"Lord, I do give Thee
thanks for the abundance that is mine." Every time he looked upon it,
he repeated those words of
thankfulness. The happy ending lies in the fact that these words of
praise and thanksgiving
proved to be as potent a talisman for Don Blanding as they had for
Mike, the Hawaiian.
"Whoso offereth praise, glorifieth Me," sang the Psalmist of old. And
it is as true today as it was thousands of years ago. Praise,
thankfulness, understanding--these
three supply the golden key to anything of good you may desire of life.
In "Think What You Want" magazine, some time ago, H. W. Alexander told
how praise helps. "Sincere praise is money in your pocket," he said.
"It is a spiritual
and moral uplift. It is a tonic to the giver and the receiver. It
rebounds to both a thousand times. I
know a company whose sales during the depression went from $2,600,000 a
year to $8,000,000. Praise
was the inspiration.
"In a divorce court not so long ago was recorded the story of a man who
from a laborer's job climbed to the Presidency of his business. A
friend asked him why he
quit his almost lifetime companion, though she was well provided for.
Said he, 'Well my wife of
today appreciates my ability, tells me right along, whereas my
childhood sweetheart knows my
weaknesses and tells me about them. I like appreciation.' His income
tax is on a $100,000
salary.
"Little things count. Your secretary has a new dress, a new hat, a
fashionably fluffy ruffle--tell her so. The file clerk finds your
letters quickly--tell her so. The cop on
the beat is sure to see the school boys are safely over with a wave of
his hand. Tell him he is
tops.
"One of the finest persons who worked for me was an elderly servant
woman. She had a tough time in life, poorly educated, used split
infinitives, came early in the
morning to clean the house. She often said to me as I left in the
morning, 'Sure, you look good today.
You've got a big job, you work hard, you'll win.' She
thought I
was good, and when I went
out I
was good. Top executives who read this know very well the
truth of what the chauffeur, maid,
gardener--who gives them a cheery word of praise, means to them at
market time, conference time,
or directors' time--it rings in their mind--oh, yes, they remember. You
can't fly too high.
"And the mother who
thinks her boy or girl is about right, aids
them on as no one else can.
"I have this belief--that big or little, praise does win friends, wins
respect for yourself, wins you a monetary return, and it helps a
Pullman porter, a housewife, an
industrialist to bigger, better things. It costs you nothing but a
smile--but do be sincere.
"To the wives who may read this: You know your man. He can't fool you.
But be just as honest as you can, praise him, send him out to work with
a smile, with praise,
and you'll wear sables--try it."
Like attracts like. Praise and appreciation bring back greater praise
and appreciation to you. If you want health, happiness, in your life,
if you are seeking riches and
success, attune your thoughts to these. BLESS the circumstances that
surround you. Bless and praise
those who come in contact with you. Bless even the difficulties you
meet, for by blessing them,
you can change them from discordant conditions to favorable ones, you
can speed up their rate of
activity to where they will bring you good, instead of evil. It is only
lack of RESPONSIVENESS to
good that produces the lacks in your life. Good works on the plane of
EXPANSION. Good revolves
at a high rate of activity. You can key your activity to that same rate
by an expectant,
confident state of mind. You can bring all your surroundings and
circumstances up to that same level
by BLESSING them, PRAISING the good in them, saluting the DIVINITY in
them.
In the pages that follow, we shall show you how the practice of
blessing and praising all things has brought good to all who have tried
it, how you can use these same
methods to attract every good thing you may desire.
"Into whatsoever house ye enter, first say--"Peace be to this house!"
Chapter 2 - IN
THE
BEGINNING
WE OFTEN SPEAK of psychology and metaphysics as new sciences, and think
that the study of these began within the last half-century. Yet if you
refer to the very
first book of the Bible, you find more profound examples of applied
psychology than in any textbook
of today.
Take the story of Jacob as an instance. You remember how Jacob agreed
to serve Laban seven years for the hand of Rachel in marriage. And how,
through the guile of
his father-in-law, Jacob had to serve a second seven years. Even then,
when he would have gone
back to his own country, Laban begged him to tarry yet a while longer,
and agreed to pay Jacob
as wages "all the speckled and spotted cattle and all the brown cattle
among the sheep, and the
speckled and spotted among the goats."
Since Laban first removed from the herds all cattle of this kind, the
chances of Jacob's getting rich on the speckled offspring of
solid-colored cattle seemed poor indeed.
But Jacob evidently knew his Scriptures, and the idea we think so new,
that first comes the "word" (or mental image), then the physical
manifestation, was in his
mind even when he made the bargain. For what did he do ?
"And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chestnut
tree; and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which
was in the rods.
"And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the
gutters in the watering troughs when the flocks came to drink, that
they should conceive when they came
to drink.
"And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle
ringstraked, speckled, and spotted.
"And Jacob did separate the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks
toward the ringstraked, and all the brown in the flock of Laban; and he
put his own flocks by
themselves, and put them unto Laban's cattle.
"As it came to pass, whensoever the stronger cattle did conceive, that
Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the cattle in the gutters that
they might conceive among the
rods.
"But when the cattle were feeble, he put them not in; so the feebler
were Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's.
"And the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and
maidservants, and manservants, and camels, and asses."
You have heard of the English cuckoo. Too lazy to rear and care for its
own young, it goes to the nests of other birds when they are off
seeking food, notes the markings
on their eggs, then comes back later and lays in their nest eggs of
those same exact
markings!
Various saints of the middle ages are said to have had markings on
their hands, feet and sides similar to those on the crucified Saviour,
acquired from constant
contemplation of His image. And only recently I read of an adopted
child, which was reported to have
developed markings similar in all respects to those of the real son of
its foster-parents, although
the son had died some months
before the adopted child was born. The parents were satisfied it was a
case of reincarnation, but it seemed to me merely a materialization in
the foster-child of the images
in the mother's mind. She had grieved inexpressibly over her loss. She
had adopted the waif to
try to fill the void left by her own little boy. And striving to see in
his every action some reminder
of her lost one, those images so strongly held in her mind actually
expressed themselves in the body
of her foster-child.
It all comes back to that first line of the first chapter of the Gospel
of St. John--"In the beginning was the "Word." For what is a "Word"? A
mental image, is it not? Before
an architect can build a house, he must have a mental image of what he
is to build. Before you
can accomplish anything, you must have a clear mental image of what it
is you want to do.
Turn to the Scriptural account of the creation of the world. What is
the outstanding fact you find there?
IN EVERY THING GOD CREATED, THE "WORD" CAME FIRST--THEN THE MATERIAL
FORM!
Just listen: "And God said, Let there be light. . . And God said, Let
there be a firmament . . . And God said, Let us make man ..."
First the "word," then the material form. Scientists tell us that words
denote ideas, mental concepts--that you can always judge how far a race
has advanced in the
mental scale by the number of words it uses. Its vocabulary is the
measure of its ideas.
Few words--few ideas, few mental images.
Therefore, when God said--"Let the earth bring forth grass," He had in
mind a clear mental image of what grass was like. In other words, He
had already formed the mold.
As the Scriptures put it--"The Lord God made the earth and the heavens,
and every plant of the
field
before it was at the earth, and every herb of the
field
before it grew."
He
made the mental image, the mold. It needed then only to draw upon the
energy about Him to fill that mold and give
it material form.
And that is all you, too, need to do to give your word of power
material form--first make the mental image, the mold, then pour into it
the elements necessary to
make that image manifest for all to see.
What do you want first? -- Health -- Happiness? Riches?
For perfect health, begin by taking the life out of every distorted
image of sickness or imperfection. Charge those nerve centers of yours
to withdraw their supporting hands,
and let your image of disease collapse like the pricked bubble it is.
THEN IMAGE THE PERFECT MOLD OF WHATEVER ORGAN HAS BEEN DISEASED.
Image the perfect mold of it so vividly that you can clearly see it in
your mind's eye, then charge The God in You to reach out with its
millions of hands for all the
elements it needs to make that perfect image manifest.
First the word (the mental image), then the creation. But the creation
will never become manifest without faith. So when you have made your
image, when you have set The
God in You to work pouring into it the elements it needs for life, "
believe
that you
receive!" See with the eyes of your mind that perfect organ
functioning as it was meant to,
and thank
God for it!
For riches, the same principle holds true. Take your life out
of
every image of debt, of lack, of unfulfilled obligation. The God in you
is a God of plenty. He cannot
owe money. He cannot be limited. There are no circumstances powerful
enough to force Him to
live in poverty or want.
Yet He, remember, is devoted entirely to your advancement. So how can
you be tied down by debt or limitation of any kind?
How? Because YOU hare insisted upon it. Instead of a God of plenty, you
have worshipped one of want. Instead of reaching out for what you
needed, you have tied the
hands of The God in You and tried to do their work with the paltry
powers of your material hands.
Unloose The God in You! Give Him a job and set Him to work. Make your
mental image of the great business or other service you long for, then
set The God in You
to work bringing to you every element you need to make that image real.
And don't wait until
you receive the whole of it, but as fast as any element becomes
manifest, USE it!
If you have only 10 cents, USE it to start your great idea. If you have
only the idea, START it, even though you can take only the first step.
First the word, remember,
then the creation. And there can be no creation without faith.
Show your faith by using each element as fast as it makes itself
manifest, even though there be no sign that any other element is
following, and before you know it, your
whole structure will be complete.
Have you ever read Genevieve Behrend's account of how she got $20,000,
when, from all material points of view, her chances of ever seeing that
amount of money were
just about nil?
"Every night before going to sleep," she writes, in YOUR INVISIBLE
POWER, "I made a mental picture of the desired $20,000 which seemed
necessary to go and study
with Troward. Twenty imaginary $1,000 bills were counted over each
night in my bedroom,and
then, with the idea of more emphatically impressing my mind with the
fact that this twenty
thousand dollars was for the
purpose of going to England, and studying with Troward, I wrote out my
picture, saw myself buying my steamer ticket, walking up an down the
ship's deck from New
York to London, and finally saw myself accepted as Troward's pupil.
This process was
repeated every morning and every evening, always impressing more and
more fully upon my mind
Troward's memorized statement: 'My mind is a center of Divine
operations.' I endeavored to
keep this statement in the back part of my consciousness all the time,
with no thought in mind of
how the money might be obtained. Probably the reason why there was no
thought of the avenues
through which the money might reach me was because I could not possibly
imagine where the
$20,000 would come from. So I simply held my thought steady and let the
power of attraction find
its own way and means.
"One day while walking on the street, taking deep breathing exercises,
the thought came: 'My mind is surely a center of Divine operation. If
God fills all space, then
God must he in my mind also; if I want this money to study with Troward
that I may know the truth of
Life, then both the money and the truth must be mine, though I am
unable to feel or see the physical
manifestations of either. Still,' I declared, 'it must be mine.'
"While these reflections were going on in my mind, there seemed to come
up from within me the thought: 'I AM all the substance there is.' Then,
from another channel
in my brain the answer seemed to come, 'Of course, that's it;
everything must have its
beginning in mind. The Idea must contain within itself the only one and
primary substance there is, and
this means money as well as everything else.' My mind accepted this
idea, and immediately all the
tension of mind and body was relaxed. There was a feeling of absolute
certainty of being in
touch with all the power Life has to give. All thought of money,
teacher, or even my own personality,
vanished in the great wave of joy which swept over my entire being. I
walked on and on, with this
feeling of joy steadily increasing and expanding until everything about
me seemed aglow with
resplendent light. Every person I passed appeared illuminated as I was.
All consciousness of
personality had disappeared, and in its place there came that great and
almost overwhelming sense of
joy and contentment.
"That night when I made my picture of the twenty thousand dollars it
was with an entirely changed aspect. On previous occasions, when making
my mental picture, I had
felt that I was waking up something within myself. This time there was
no sensation of effort. I
simply counted over the twenty thousand dollars. Then, in a most
unexpected manner, from a
source of which I had no consciousness at the time, there seemed to
open a possible avenue
through which the money might reach me.
"Just as soon as there appeared a circumstance which indicated the
direction through which the twenty thousand dollars might come, I not
only made a supreme effort to
regard the indicated direction calmly as the first sprout of the seed I
had sown in the
absolute, but left no stone unturned to follow up that direction,
thereby fulfilling my part. By so doing,
one circumstance seemed naturally to lead to another, until, step by
step, my desired twenty
thousand dollars was secured."
For happiness, the method is no different. Your God is a God of love,
and real love can know no unhappiness, for love gets its happiness from
giving.
There are laws to interfere with almost every other activity of
humanity, but none to keep you from giving as much as you like. An
unselfish giving results in getting,
just as surely as planting results in harvesting. Give with no thought
of reward but the good of the one
you are helping, and good is bound to flow back to you.
Love begets love, you know, so take your life out of every thought of
enmity, of repining, of unhappiness. In place of these, see yourself in
your mind's eye giving
every manner of happiness to all whom you would have love you. Image
that in your mind's eye, then
set The God in You to work bringing you opportunities to make all these
loved ones happier.
And as fast as each opportunity presents itself, USE it! No matter how
tiny an opportunity
it may be, use it! No matter if it be merely the chance to say a
pleasant word, to give a kindly
smile, to bring a happy thought, use it!
And in the using, you will find that doubly great happiness has come to
you.
Each of us is a miniature sun, his circumstances and surroundings his
solar system. If debts and disease and troubles form part of your
system, what is the remedy?
Let go of them, of course! If you want new planets of riches and
youth and happiness, how can you get
them? In the same way the sun does, and only in that way--by throwing
off from yourself.
Remember this: Nothing can come into your solar system except from you
or through you. If it comes from outside, it is not yours and has no
power over you until you
take hold of it mentally and accept it as yours. If you don't want it,
you can refuse to accept
it, refuse to take hold of it, refuse to believe in its reality--then
put in the place it seems to
occupy, the perfect condition of your own imaging.
If there is something lacking in your solar system, you have only to
"speak the word"--create the mental image, then hold to that image in
serene faith until The God in
You has filled it with those elements that make it visible to all.
It is your own fault when you allow yourself to become the victim of
personal impotence or of undesirable external situations. As Emerson
put it--"Nothing external
to you has any power over you." You fear these negative seemings simply
because you BELIEVE in
them, when all the time it is only that BELIEF that gives them power
and authority.
Remember, YOU are the central sun of your own solar system, YOU have
dominion over everything within that system. YOU can say what shall
enter, what shall
stay there. And you have infinite attractive power to draw to you
anything of good you may
desire. Nothing stands between you and your fondest desires but lack of
understanding of or faith in
this power of attraction.
But once you send out the desire, you must have perfect faith in the
result. You cannot accomplish anything by expressing a desire and then
spending your time fearing and
worrying lest you will not find the work you seek, or not have the
money in time to pay your
bills, or that some other evil thing will happen to prevent good from
coming to you. The law of
attraction cannot bring both good and evil at the same time. It must be
one or the other. And it is
up to YOU to decide which it shall be.
"After any object or purpose is clearly held in thought," says Lilian
Whiting, "its precipitation in tangible and visible form is merely a
question of time. Columbus saw in
vision a path through trackless waters around the world. The vision
always precedes and
itself determines the realization."
Dare you to say--"Every day In every way I am getting richer and
richer"? If you dare--and will follow up the word with the mental image
of yourself HAVING all the
riches you desire--Spirit substance will make your word manifest and
show you the way to riches.
You were designed by the Father to be master of your fate and captain
of your soul. If you are not exercising that mastery, it is because you
are lying down on the job.
Instead of mastering your thoughts and mental images, you are letting
them bow down before mere
things. No thing can make you unhappy if you will exercise your divine
power of
love and blessings towards it. Everything is good in its essence, and
that good essence
will respond to your call of blessing, and its good will come forth to
meet you.