The Sermon on the Mount: The Key to Success in Life

by Emmet Fox

conciseness of expression is of the greatest assistance in mastering any subject.

The plain fact is that Jesus taught no theology whatever.

It will startle many good people to learn that all the doctrines and theologies of the churches are human inventions built up by their authors out of their own mentalities, and foisted upon the Bible from the outside; but such is the case.

Worthy people who felt the need of some intellectual explanation of life, and also believed that the Bible was a revelation of God to man, drew the natural conclusion that the one must be within the other; and then, more or less unconsciously, proceeded to manufacture the thing that they wished to find.

What he insisted upon was a certain spirit in one's conduct, and he was careful to teach principles only, knowing that when the spirit is right, details will take care of themselves;

the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath,

He clearly indicates throughout his teaching that the time has come when man must make each and every day a spiritual Sabbath by knowing and doing all things in a spiritual light.

Now, one must extend every sympathy to the special pleadings of a man enthralled by the beauty and mystery of the Gospels, but who, in the absence of the Spiritual Key, seems to find his common sense and all the scientific knowledge of mankind flouted by much that these Gospels contain.

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Character must include some definite beliefs and convictions concerning things that really matter.

The Gospel miracles happened because Jesus had the spiritual understanding that gave him greater power in prayer than anyone else before or since.

The Spiritual Key to the Bible rescues us from all these difficulties, dilemmas, and seeming inconsistencies. It saves us from the false positions of Ritualism, Evangelicalism, and what is called Liberalism alike, because it gives us the Truth. And the Truth turns out to be nothing less than the amazing but undeniable fact that the whole outer world—whether it be the physical body, the common things of life, the winds and the rain, the clouds, the earth itself—is amenable to man's thought, and that he has dominion over it when he knows it. The outer world, far from being the prison of circumstances that it is commonly supposed to be, has actually no character whatsoever of its own, either good or bad.

All day long the thoughts that occupy your mind, your Secret Place, as Jesus calls it, are moulding your destiny for good or evil; in fact,

the truth is that the whole of our life's experience is but the outer expression of inner thought.

The magnitude and extent of these results will depend solely upon the sincerity and thoroughness with which they are applied.

They hardly ever understand them, unfortunately, and as a rule look upon them as a counsel of perfection, without any real application to everyday life. But this is only because they lack the Spiritual Key.

The Beatitudes are actually a prose poem in eight verses which is complete in itself, and it constitutes what is practically a general summary of the whole Christian teaching.

From the point of view of the soul, success in prayer is the only kind of prosperity worth having; and if our prayers are successful, we shall naturally have all the material things that we need.

To be poor in spirit means to have emptied yourself of all desire to exercise personal self-will, and, what is just as important, to have renounced all preconceived opinions in the wholehearted search for God.

found. First, of all, the word "earth" in the Bible does not mean merely this terrestrial globe. It really means manifestation.

The true significance of the word "meek" in the Bible is a mental attitude for which there is no other single word available, and it is this mental attitude which is the secret of "prosperity" or success in prayer.

It is a combination of open-mindedness, faith in God, and the realization that the Will of God

for us is always something joyous and interesting and vital, and much better than anything we c...

This state of mind also includes a perfect willingness to allow this Will of God to come about in whatever way Divine Wisdom considers to be best, rather than in some particular way that we have chosen for ourselves.

If it were possible for us to affect externals directly without changing our thought, it would mean that we could think one thing and produce another; and this would be contrary to the Law of the Universe. Indeed, it is just this very notion which is the basic fallacy that lies at the root of all human trouble—all sickness and sin, all strife and poverty, and even death itself.

Like begets like, is another way of stating the Great Law, which means that as a man soweth in his unseen thoughts, so shall he reap in that which is seen,

Kind actions coupled with unkind thoughts are hypocrisy, dictated by fear, or desire for self-glory, or some such motive.

This limitation in us is known in theology as the "Fall of Man," and it arises from our using our free will in opposition to the Will of God.

"As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." "Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life."

The amount of the difference may be only very slight for each time that you pray: nevertheless it is there,

It includes both affirmative and invocatory prayer, each of which is good in its own place; meditation; and the highest of all forms of prayer, which is contemplation.

for what you see at any time is nothing but your own concept. There is at this point a grave danger for weak, or vain, or self- righteous people.

There is a Cosmic Law that nothing can permanently deny its own nature.

The soul that is built upon prayer cannot be hidden; it shines out brightly through the life that it lives. It speaks for itself, but in utter silence, and does much of its best work unconsciously. Its mere presence heals and blesses all around it without special effort.

You

cannot lose anything that is worth having through acquiring a knowledge of the Truth.

Indeed, all real spiritual understanding must necessarily be accompanied by definite moral improvement.

life. It is utterly impossible to divorce true spiritual knowledge from right conduct.

Spiritual attainment and the highest standards of conduct must go hand in hand. Unless both are there, neither is there.

Let this be for frontlets between your eyes, and write it upon the doorposts of your heart—you have to demonstrate where you are. To seek to demonstrate beyond your understanding is not spiritual.

To pray scientifically is to keep affirming that God is helping him, that the temptation has no power against him, and constantly to claim that his own real nature is spiritual and perfect. This is ever so much more powerful than merely to invoke the help of God. In this way moral regeneration and spiritual unfoldment will go hand in hand.

He will die daily, as the man he is, to be reborn bigger and wiser and better on the morrow.

as you may feel led.

In the same deadly spirit some teachers forbid their students to read any religious books except those of their own school. This is such an appalling crime against the very life of the soul that no words can be found adequately to characterize it.

You should always pray as you feel led to do by the action of the Holy Spirit in your soul at the moment. It is the spontaneous prayer, the thought that is "given" to you at the moment, that carries power.

If, when someone is behaving badly, instead of thinking of the trouble, you will immediately switch your attention off from the human to the Divine, and concentrate upon God, or upon the Real Spiritual Self of the person in question, you will find—if you really do this—that his conduct will immediately change.

But it is the sin and not the sinner that is to be condemned.

Quite simply, the Spiritual Ideal is the understanding of the basic fact that good is permanent, omnipresent, and all-powerful; and evil, a temporary, insubstantial belief, without character of its own, which is destroyed by scientific prayer.

Withdraw this—and it fades into nothingness. You have thought the error into existence, consciously or, more often, unconsciously. Now unthink it. It is always your thinking that matters. Indeed, as Shakespeare says, "There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so."

If you receive bad news, do not resist it in thought. Realize the unchanging nature and infinite harmony of Good ever available, at every point of existence; and things will come right.