Above Lifes Turmoil | Page 6

James Allen
and knowledge of, those principles
is tested to the uttermost, and the way in which he comes out of the
fiery trial decides as to whether he has sufficient strength to live as a
man of Truth, and join the company of the free, or shall still remain a
slave and a hireling to the cruel taskmaster, Self.
Such times of trial generally assume the form of a temptation to do a
wrong thing and continue in comfort and prosperity, or to stand by
what is right and accept poverty and failure; and so powerful is the trial
that, to the tempted one, it plainly appears on the face of things as
though, if he chooses the wrong, his material success will be assured
for the remainder of his life, but if he does what is right, he will be
ruined for ever.
Frequently the man at once quails and gives way before this appalling
prospect which the Path of Righteousness seems to hold out for him,
but should he prove sufficiently strong to withstand this onslaught of
temptation, then the inward seducer the spirit of self, assumes the grab
of an Angel of Light, and whispers, "Think of your wife and children;
think of those who are dependent upon you; will you bring them down
to disgrace and starvation?"
Strong indeed and pure must be the man who can come triumphant out
of such a trial, but he who does so, enters at once a higher realm of life,

where his spiritual eyes are opened to see beautiful things; and then
poverty and ruin which seemed inevitable do not come, but a more
abiding success comes, and a peaceful heart and a quiet conscience. But
he who fails does not obtain the promised prosperity, and his heart is
restless and his conscience troubled.
The right-doer cannot ultimately fail, the wrong-doer cannot ultimately
succeed, for
_"Such is the Law which moves to Righteousness
Which none at last can turn aside or stay,"_
and it is because justice is at the heart of things- because the Great Law
is good- that the man of integrity is superior to fear, and failure, and
poverty, and shame, and disgrace.As the poet further says of this Law:
_"The heart of its Love, the end of it
Is peace and cosummation sweet-obey."_
The man who fearing the loss of present pleasures or material comforts,
denies the Truth within him, can be injured, and robbed, and degraded,
and trampled upon, because he has first injured, robbed and degraded,
and trampled upon his own nobler self; but the man of steadfast virtue,
of unblemished integrity, cannot be subject to such conditions, because
he has denied the craven self within him and has taken refuge in Truth.
It is not the scourge and the chains which make a man a slave, but the
fact that he is a slave.
Slander, Accusation, and malice cannot affect the righteous man, nor
call from him any bitter response, nor does he need to go about to
defend himself and prove his innocence. His innocence and integrity
alone are a sufficient answer to all that hatred may attempt against him.
Nor can he ever be subdued by the forces of darkness, having subdued
all those forces within himself; but he turns all evil things to good
account - out of darkness he brings light, out of hatred love, out of
dishonour honour; and slanders, envies, and misrepresentations only

serve to make more bright the jewel of Truth within him, and to glorify
his high and holy destiny.
Let the man of integrity rejoice and be glad when he is severely tried;
let him be thankful that he has been given an opportunity of proving his
loyalty to the noble principles which he has espoused; and let him think:
"Now is the hour of holy opportunity! Now is the day of triumph for
Truth! Though I lose the whole world I will note desert the right!" So
thinking, he will return good for evil, and will think compassionately of
the wrong-doer.
The slanderer, the backbiter, and the wrong-doer may seem to succeed
for a time, but the Law of Justice prevails; the man of integrity may
seem to fail for a time, but he is invincible, and in none of the worlds,
visible or invisible, can there be forged a weapon that shall prevail
against him.
Discrimination
There is one quality which is pre-eminently necessary to spiritual
development, the quality of discrimination.
A man's spiritual progress will be painfully slow and uncertain until
there opens with him the eye of discrimination, for without this testing,
proving, searching quality, he will but grope in the dark, will be unable
to distinguish the real from the unreal, the shadow from the substance,
and will so confuse the
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