151. Upon what does wealth depend?
Upon an understanding of the creative nature of thought.
152. Upon what does its true value consist?
Upon its exchange value.
153. Upon what does success depend?
Upon spiritual power.
154. Upon what does this power depend?
Upon use; use determines its existence.
155. How may we take our fate out of the hands of chance?
By consciously realizing the conditions which we desire to see manifested in our lives.
156. What then is the great business in life?
Thinking.
157. Why is this so?
Because thought is spiritual and therefore creative. To consciously control thought is therefore to control circumstances, conditions, environment and destiny.
158. What is the source of all evil?
Destructive thinking.
159. What is the source of all good?
Scientific correct thinking.
153
160. What is scientific thinking?
A recognition of the creative nature of spiritual energy and our ability to control it.
154
TELLS of the Law of Vibration and why the highest principle necessarily determines the circumstances, aspects and relations of everything with which it comes in contact. It tells why and how a knowledge of these higher forces makes all physical force sink into insignificance. It explains the nature of concentration; it tells something of the practice of concentration, tells something of the results of concentration. It tells how the mind may become a magnet, how it may irresistibly attract the conditions which it desires; it tells why it is necessary "to be" in order "to have." It tells how to unfasten the prison bars of weakness, impotence and self-belittlement and realize the joy of overcoming obstacles. It tells how the intuitive power is set in operation and how this inevitably leads to success. It tells of the difference between real power and the symbols of power, and why the symbols turn to ashes just as we overtake them.
INTRODUCTION. PART SEVENTEEN.
The kind of Deity which a man, consciously or unconsciously, worships, indicates the intellectual status of the worshiper.
Ask the Indian of God, and he will describe to you a powerful chieftain of a glorious tribe. Ask the Pagan of God, and he will tell you of a God of fire, a God of water, a God of this, that and the other.
Ask the Israelite of God, and he will tell you of the God of Moses, who conceived it expedient to rule by coercive measures; hence, the Ten Commandments. Or he will tell you of Joshua, who led the Israelites into battle, confiscated property, murdered the prisoners and laid cities waste.
The so-called heathen made "graven images" of their Gods, whom they were accustomed to worship, but among the most intelligent, at least, these images were but the visible emblems which they used to facilitate mental concentration on the qualities which they desired to externalize in their lives.
We of the twentieth century worship a God of Love in theory, but in practice we make for ourselves "graven images" of "Wealth," "Power," "Fashion,"
"Custom' and "Conventionality." We "fall down" before them and worship them. We concentrate on them and they are thereby externalized in our lives.
155
The reader who masters the contents of Part Seventeen will not mistake symbols for reality; he will be interested in causes, rather than effects. He will concentrate on the realities of life, and will then not be disappointed in the results.