obtaining that knowledge of himself
which is Understanding, Wisdom, Power. In this direction, as in no other, is the law
absolute that "He that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened;" for
only by patience, practice, and ceaseless importunity can a man enter the Door of the
Temple of Knowledge.
EFFECT OF THOUGHT ON CIRCUMSTANCES
MAN'S mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or
allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will, _bring forth._
If no useful seeds are _put _into it, then an abundance of useless weed-seeds will _fall
_therein, and will continue to produce their kind.
Just as a gardener cultivates his plot, keeping it free from weeds, and growing the flowers
and fruits which he requires, so may a man tend the garden of his mind, weeding out all
the wrong, useless, and impure thoughts, and cultivating toward perfection the flowers
and fruits of right, useful, and pure thoughts. By pursuing this process, a man sooner or
later discovers that he is the master-gardener of his soul, the director of his life. He also
reveals, within himself, the laws of thought, and understands, with ever-increasing
accuracy, how the thought-forces and mind elements operate in the shaping of his
character, circumstances, and destiny.
Thought and character are one, and as character can only manifest and discover itself
through environment and circumstance, the outer conditions of a person's life will always
be found to be harmoniously related to his inner state. This does not mean that a man's
circumstances at any given time are an indication of his _entire _character, but that those
circumstances are so intimately connected with some vital thought-element within
himself that, for the time being, they are indispensable to his development.
Every man is where he is by the law of his being; the thoughts which he has built into his
character have brought him there, and in the arrangement of his life there is no element of
chance, but all is the result of a law which cannot err. This is just as true of those who
feel "out of harmony" with their surroundings as of those who are contented with them.
As a progressive and evolving being, man is where he is that he may learn that he may
grow; and as he learns the spiritual lesson which any circumstance contains for him, it
passes away and gives place to other circumstances.
Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes himself to be the creature of
outside conditions, but when he realizes that he is a creative power, and that he may
command the hidden soil and seeds of his being out of which circumstances grow, he
then becomes the rightful master of himself.
That circumstances grow out of thought every man knows who has for any length of time
practised self-control and self-purification, for he will have noticed that the alteration in
his circumstances has been in exact ratio with his altered mental condition. So true is this
that when a man earnestly applies himself to remedy the defects in his character, and
makes swift and marked progress, he passes rapidly through a succession of vicissitudes.
The soul attracts that which it secretly harbours; that which it loves, and also that which it
fears; it reaches the height of its cherished aspirations; it falls to the level of its
unchastened desires,--and circumstances are the means by which the soul receives its
own.
Every thought-seed sown or allowed to fall into the mind, and to take root there, produces
its own, blossoming sooner or later into act, and bearing its own fruitage of opportunity
and circumstance. Good thoughts bear good fruit, bad thoughts bad fruit.
The outer world of circumstance shapes itself to the inner world of thought, and both
pleasant and unpleasant external conditions are factors, which make for the ultimate good
of the individual. As the reaper of his own harvest, man learns both by suffering and
bliss.
Following the inmost desires, aspirations, thoughts, by which he allows himself to be
dominated, (pursuing the will-o'-the-wisps of impure imaginings or steadfastly walking
the highway of strong and high endeavour), a man at last arrives at their fruition and
fulfilment in the outer conditions of his life. The laws of growth and adjustment
everywhere obtains.
A man does not come to the almshouse or the jail by the tyranny of fate or circumstance,
but by the pathway of grovelling thoughts and base desires. Nor does a pure-minded man
fall suddenly into crime by stress of any mere external force; the criminal thought had
long been secretly fostered in the heart, and the hour of opportunity revealed its gathered
power. Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him
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