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But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard far their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
The "Secret Place of the Most High," the Psalmist calls it, and it is secret because no one but yourself knows what goes on therein. There is privacy, and there is dominion. You have the power to think what thoughts you like. You can choose which thoughts you will accept and which you will reject. You are master there. Whatever thoughts you do elect to dwell upon will presently be expressed in the outer physical world as things and events—but that is your lookout.
Since it is true that the kind of thoughts that you hold in consciousness (the Secret Place) are presently going to be expressed in your outer life, in your body and affairs, you will no more think of holding inharmonious thoughts than you would think of eating or drinking something which was certain to make you very ill.
Whatever you give your attention to, is the thing that governs your life. Attention is the key. Your free will lies in the directing of your attention. Whatever you steadfastly direct your attention to, will come into your life and dominate it. If you do not direct your attention consistently to anything in particular—and many people do not—then nothing in particular will come into your life except uncertainty and suspense; you will be like a drifting log. If you direct your attention to the outer world of manifestation, which is in its nature continually shifting and changing, you are bound
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The lesson is that you are to adapt yourself as completely to your element as they do to theirs. Your true element is the Presence of God.
The Spiritual Basis does not mean laissez faire; it means intensified activity, but on the spiritual as distinct from the material plane. This is the only way in which one can be said to be seeking first the Kingdom of Heaven; and all needful things will be found to follow upon that.
If you are secretly looking to someone else to come to the rescue, you are not really depending upon the Word. Every Scientific Christian is entitled to reasonable prosperity, which means enough to live on in decent comfort and reasonable security.
This is one more way of stating the great truth that he states in so many ways; namely, that we have to be born again. As long as you remain the man that you are, you cannot by merely taking thought be or do anything except what you are (because, of course, you always do what you are); you can only "get anywhere," as they say, by becoming a different man, and this you can only do by getting some realization of the Presence of God.
The best way to prepare for tomorrow is to make today's consciousness serene and harmonious. All other good things will follow upon that.
Never go delving into your mind to look for troubles to pray or treat about. Deal faithfully with those that bring themselves to your attention, and hidden things will be taken care of.
Water finds its own level sooner or later and our treatment of others returns at last upon ourselves.
The Golden Rule in Scientific Christianity is: Think about others as you would wish them to think about you.
for wisdom is the perfect blending of intelligence and love.
Above all things, be chary of forcing the subject of Truth upon the people with whom you have to live and work; especially in your home. It is easy to make yourself nothing less than a constant nuisance by forcing your ideas upon people who cannot appreciate them, because they are not ready.
When you are desirous of introducing the Truth to a particular person, or to a group of people, the proper course is to prepare yourself by a special daily treatment for several days, or better still for a week or two, in advance. Work for Intelligence, Love (to overcome impatience, and to help you to meet ridicule or seeming unkindness), and, above all, for Wisdom, which, as we have seen, is the right union of the other two.
Claim that the action of God will make you say the right thing when the time comes, and that it will also endow your listener or listeners with the same qualities.
Do not allow yourself to care in the least what the actual result of the discussion may turn out to be. Voice the Truth, and leave it.
The Fatherhood of God compels us to accept the brotherhood of man, and, spiritually, brotherhood is unity.
The truth is that the Will of God for us always means greater freedom, greater self-expression, wider and newer and brighter experience; better health, greater prosperity, wider opportunity of service to others—life more abundant.
that change in the outer picture becomes the visible evidence of the change in the inner—"an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace"—and thus we come to know unerringly where we stand. The outer picture is like the gauge that tells what is happening inside a boiler.
"There is no home for the soul in which there dwells the shadow of an untruth," said George Meredith. This danger is an extraordinarily subtle one.
the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. We must not allow any consideration whatever, any institution, or organization, or any book, or any man or woman, to come between us and our direct seeking for God. If our reliance is upon anything but our own understanding of Truth, our work will cease to be fruitful.
You should gladly take advantage of helpful teaching wherever you may get it; go to churches or meetings that help you; listen to speakers, and read books that inspire you to find yourself; but do not surrender to anybody your own spiritual judgment.
Remember that the Truth of Being concerns Itself with the infinite, the impersonal Principle of Life; and does not lend itself to the exploitation of particular personalities or organizations. You do not owe an atom of loyalty to anyone or anything in the universe except your own Indwelling Christ, your own spiritual integrity.
the actual work must be done in the individual consciousness.
To claim more than this for outer things is to reestablish superstition.
It is essentially an attempt to gain some supposed good to which we are not entitled in justice. It is a sense of isolated, self-regarding, personal existence, whereas the Truth of Being is that all is One.
The method of forgiving is this: Get by yourself and become quiet. Repeat any prayer or treatment that appeals to you, or read a chapter of the Bible. Then quietly say, "I fully and freely forgive X (mentioning the name of the offender); I loose him and let him go. I completely forgive the whole business in question. As far as I am concerned, it is finished forever. I cast the burden of resentment upon the Christ within me.
He is free now, and I am free too. I wish him well in every phase of his life. That incident is finished. The Christ Truth has set us both free. I thank God."
