Good results. A considerable portion of the happenings of life comes to us without
any direct choosing on our part, and such happenings are generally regarded as having
no relation to our will or character, but as appearing fortuitously, as occurring
without a cause. Thus one is spoken of as being lucky and another unlucky,
the inference being that each has received something which he never earned, never
caused. Deeper thought and a clearer insight into life convinces us, however,
that nothing appears without a cause, that cause and effect are always related in
perfect adjustment and harmony. That being so, every happening directly affecting us is
intimately related to our own will and character, is indeed an effect justly related
to a cause, having its seat in our consciousness. In a word,
involuntary houseapenings of life are the results of our own thoughts and deeds. This,
I admit is not apparent on the surface. But what fundamental law,
even in the physical universe, is so apparent? If thought, investigation,
and experiment are necessary to the discovery of the principles which relate one material atom
to another, even so are they imperative to the perception and understanding of the
mode of action which relate one mental condition to another, and such modes such
laws are known by the right doer, by him who has acquired an understanding
mind. By the practice of true actions, we reap as we sow.
Those things which come to us, though not by our own choosing, are
by our own causing. The drunker did not choose the delirium tremens or insanity
which overtook him, but he caused it by his own deeds. In this
case the law is plain to all minds. But where it is not so
plain, it is nonetheless true. Within ourselves is the deep seated cause of
all our sufferings, the spring of all our joys. Alter the inner world
of thoughts, and the other world of events will cease to bring you sorrow.
Make the heart pure, and to you all things will be pure.
All occurrence is happy and in true order. Within yourselves, deliverance must be
sought. Each man his prison makes each hath such lordship as the loftiest one's
nay, For with powers above around below, as with all flesh and whatsoever
lives act, maketh joy or woe. Our life is good or bad,
enslaved or free, according to its causation in our thoughts. For out of
these thoughts spring all our deeds, and from these deeds come equitable results.
We cannot seize good result violently like a thief, and claim and enjoy them,
but we can bring them to pass by setting in motion the cause within
ourselves. Men strive for money, sigh for happiness, and would gladly possess
wisdom, yet fail to secure these things while they see others to whom these
blessings appear to come unbidden. The reason is that they have generated causes which
prevent the fulfillment of their wishes and efforts. Each life is a perfectly woven
network of causes and effects of efforts or lack of efforts and results, and
good results can only be reached by initiating good efforts good causes. The doer
of true actions, who pursue sound methods grounded on right principles, will not
need to strive and struggle for good results. They will be there as the
effects of his righteous rule of life. He will reap the fruit of his
own actions, and the reaping will be in gladness and peace. This truth
of sowing and reaping in the moral sphere is a simple one, yet men
are slow to understand and accept it. We have been told by a wise
one that the children of darkness are wiser in their day than the children of
light. And who would expect, in the material world to reap and eat
where he had not sown and planted, Or who would expect to reap wheat
in the field where he had sown tears, and would fall to weeping and
complaining if he did not. Yet, this is just what men do in
the spiritual field of mind and deed. They do evil and expect to get
from it good. And when the bitter harvesting comes in all its ripe and
fullness, they fall into despair and bemoan the hardness and injustice of their lot,
usually attributing it to the evil deeds of others, refusing even to admit
the possibility of its cause being hidden in themselves, in their own thoughts and
deeds. The children of light, those who are searching for the fundamental principles
of right living with a view to making themselves into wise and happy beings,
must train themselves to observe this law of cause and effect in thought, word,
and deed, as implicitly and obediently. As the gardener obeys the law
of sowing and reaping, he does not even question the law. He recognizes
and obeys it. When the wisdom which he instinctively practices in his garden is
practiced by men in the garden of their minds. When the law of the
sowing of deeds is so fully recognized that it can no longer be doubted or
questioned, then it will be just as faithfully followed by the sowing of those
actions which will bring about a reaping of happiness and well being for all.
As the children of matter obey the laws of matter, so let the children
of spirit obey the laws of spirit. For the law of matter and the
law of spirit are one, but they are two aspects of one thing,
the outworking of one principle in opposite directions. If we observe right principles or
causes, wrong effects cannot possibly accrue. If we pursue sound methods, no
shoddy thread can find its way into our web of life, no rotten brick
enter into the building of our character to render it insecure. And if we
do true actions, what but good results can come to pass? For to
say that good causes can produce bad effects. Is to say that nettles can
be reaped from a sowing of corn. He who orders his life along the
moral lines thus briefly enunciated, will attain to such a state of insight and
equilibrium as to render him permanently happy and perennially glad. All his efforts will
be seasonally planted, all the issues of his life will be good. And
though he may not become a millionaire, as indeed he will have no desire
to become such, he will acquire the gift of peace, and true success
will wait upon him as its commanding master.