As a Man Thinketh | Page 7

because of his particular dishonesty, _is the result of a superficial
judgment, which assumes that the dishonest man is almost totally corrupt, and the honest
man almost entirely virtuous. In the light of a deeper knowledge and wider experience
such judgment is found to be erroneous. The dishonest man may have some admirable
virtues, which the other does, not possess; and the honest man obnoxious vices which are
absent in the other. The honest man reaps the good results of his honest thoughts and acts;
he also brings upon himself the sufferings, which his vices produce. The dishonest man

likewise garners his own suffering and happiness.
It is pleasing to human vanity to believe that one suffers because of one's virtue; but not
until a man has extirpated every sickly, bitter, and impure thought from his mind, and
washed every sinful stain from his soul, can he be in a position to know and declare that
his sufferings are the result of his good, and not of his bad qualities; and on the way to,
yet long before he has reached, that supreme perfection, he will have found, working in
his mind and life, the Great Law which is absolutely just, and which cannot, therefore,
give good for evil, evil for good. Possessed of such knowledge, he will then know,
looking back upon his past ignorance and blindness, that his life is, and always was,
justly ordered, and that all his past experiences, good and bad, were the equitable
outworking of his evolving, yet unevolved self.
Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts and actions can
never produce good results. This is but saying that nothing can come from corn but corn,
nothing from nettles but nettles. Men understand this law in the natural world, and work
with it; but few understand it in the mental and moral world (though its operation there is
just as simple and undeviating), and they, therefore, do not co-operate with it.
Suffering is always the effect of wrong thought in some direction. It is an indication that
the individual is out of harmony with himself, with the Law of his being. The sole and
supreme use of suffering is to purify, to burn out all that is useless and impure. Suffering
ceases for him who is pure. There could be no object in burning gold after the dross had
been removed, and a perfectly pure and enlightened being could not suffer.
The circumstances, which a man encounters with suffering, are the result of his own
mental in harmony. The circumstances, which a man encounters with blessedness, are the
result of his own mental harmony. Blessedness, not material possessions, is the measure
of right thought; wretchedness, not lack of material possessions, is the measure of wrong
thought. A man may be cursed and rich; he may be blessed and poor. Blessedness and
riches are only joined together when the riches are rightly and wisely used; and the poor
man only descends into wretchedness when he regards his lot as a burden unjustly
imposed.
Indigence and indulgence are the two extremes of wretchedness. They are both equally
unnatural and the result of mental disorder. A man is not rightly conditioned until he is a
happy, healthy, and prosperous being; and happiness, health, and prosperity are the result
of a harmonious adjustment of the inner with the outer, of the man with his surroundings.
A man only begins to be a man when he ceases to whine and revile, and commences to
search for the hidden justice which regulates his life. And as he adapts his mind to that
regulating factor, he ceases to accuse others as the cause of his condition, and builds
himself up in strong and noble thoughts; ceases to kick against circumstances, but begins
to use them as aids to his more rapid progress, and as a means of discovering the hidden
powers and possibilities within himself.
Law, not confusion, is the dominating principle in the universe; justice, not injustice, is

the soul and substance of life; and righteousness, not corruption, is the moulding and
moving force in the spiritual government of the world. This being so, man has but to right
himself to find that the universe is right; and during the process of putting himself right
he will find that as he alters his thoughts towards things and other people, things and
other people will alter towards him.
The proof of this truth is in every person, and it therefore admits of easy investigation by
systematic introspection and self-analysis. Let a man radically alter his thoughts, and he
will be astonished at the rapid transformation it will effect in the material conditions of
his life. Men imagine that thought can be kept secret, but it cannot; it rapidly crystallizes