WE go
back here to the matter of the point of view, for, besides being vitally important,
it is the one that is likely to give the student the most trouble. We have been
trained, partly by mistaken religious teachers, to look upon the world as being
like a wrecked ship, storm-driven upon a rocky coast; utter destruction is
inevitable at the end, and the most that can be done is to rescue, perhaps, a
few of the crew. This view teaches us to consider the world as essentially bad
and growing worse; and to believe that existing discords and inharmoniousness
must continue and intensify until the end. It robs us of hope for society,
government, and humanity, and gives us a decreasing outlook and contracting
mind.
This is
all wrong. The world is not wrecked. It is like a magnificent steamer with the
engines in place and the machinery in perfect order. The bunkers are full of
coal, and the ship is amply provisioned for the cruise; there is no lack of any
good thing. Every provision Omniscience could devise has been made for the
safety, comfort, and happiness of the crew; the steamer is out on the high seas
tacking hither and thither because no one has yet learned the right course to
steer. We are learning to steer, and in due time will come grandly into the
harbor of perfect harmony.
The world
is good, and growing better. Existing discords and inharmoniousness are but the
pitching of the ship incidental to our own imperfect steering; they will all be
removed in due time. This view gives us an increasing outlook and an expanding
mind; it enables us to think largely of society and of ourselves, and to do
things in a great way.
Furthermore,
we see that nothing can be wrong with such a world or with any part of it,
including our own affairs. If it is all moving on toward completion, then it is
not going wrong; and as our own personal affairs are a part of the whole, they
are not going wrong. You and all that you are concerned with are moving on
toward completeness. Nothing can check this forward movement but yourself; and
you can only check it by assuming a mental attitude that is at cross-purposes with
the mind of God. You have nothing to keep right but yourself; if you keep
yourself right, nothing can possibly go wrong with you, and you can have
nothing to fear. No business or other disaster can come upon you if your
personal attitude is right, for you are a part of that which is increasing and
advancing, and you must increase and advance with it.
Moreover
your thought-form will be mostly shaped according to your viewpoint of the
cosmos. If you see the world as a lost and ruined thing you will see yourself
as a part of it, and as partaking of its sins and weaknesses. If your outlook
for the world as a whole is hopeless, your outlook for yourself cannot be
hopeful. If you see the world as declining toward its end, you cannot see
yourself as advancing. Unless you think well of all the works of God you cannot
really think well of yourself, and unless you think well of yourself you can
never become great.
I repeat
that your place in life, including your material environment, is determined by
the thought-form you habitually hold of yourself. When you make a thought-form
of yourself you can hardly fail to form in your mind a corresponding
environment. If you think of yourself as an incapable, inefficient person, you
will think of yourself with poor or cheap surroundings. Unless you think well
of yourself you will be sure to picture yourself in a more or less poverty
stricken environment. These thoughts, habitually held, become invisible forms
in the surrounding mind-stuff, and are with you continually. In due time, by
the regular action of the eternal creative energy, the invisible thought-forms
are produced in material stuff, and you are surrounded by your own thoughts
made into material things.