Right beginnings, all common things, each day's events that with the hour begin
and end. Our pleasures and our discontents are rounds by which we may ascend.
We have not wings, we cannot soar, but we have feet to
scale and climb. Longfellow for common life, its wants and ways, would
I set forth in beauteous hues browning. Life is full of beginnings. They
are presented every day and every hour to every person. Most beginnings are small
and appear trivial and insignificant, but in reality they are the most important things
in life. See how in the material world everything proceeds from small beginnings.
The mightiest river is at first a rivulet over which the grasshopper could leap.
The great flood commences with a few drops of the sturdy oak, which has
endured the storms of a thousand winters, was once an acorn, And the
smoldering match carelessly dropped may be the means of devastating a whole town by fire.
Consider also how in the spiritual world the greatest things proceed from smallest beginnings.
A light fancy may be the inception of a wonderful invention, or an
immortal work of art. A spoken sentence may turn the tide of history.
A pure thought entertained may lead to the exercise of a worldwide regenerative power,
and a momentary animal impulse may lead to the darkest crime. Have you yet
discovered the vast importance of beginnings? Do you really know what is involved in
a beginning? Do you know the number of beginnings you are continuously making and
realize their full import? If not, come with me for a short time
and thoughtfully explore this much ignored by way of blessedness, For blessed it is
when wisely resorted to, and much strength and comfort it holds for the understanding
mind. A beginning is a cause, and as such it must be followed
by an effect or a train of effects, and the effect will always be
the same nature as the cause. The nature of an initial impulse will always
determine the body of its results. A beginning also presupposes an ending, a
consummation, achievement, or goal. A gate leads to a path, and
the path leads to some particular destination. So a beginning leads to results,
and results lead to a completion. There are right beginnings and wrong beginnings,
which are followed by effects of like nature, you can, by careful thought
at avoid wrong beginnings and make right beginnings, and so escape evil results and
enjoy good results. There are beginnings over which you have no control and authority.
These are without in the universe, in the world of nature around you,
and in other people who have the same liberty as yourself. Do not
concern yourself with these beginnings, but direct your energies and attention to those beginnings
over which you have complete control and authority, and which bring about the complicated
web of results which compose your life. These beginnings are to be found in
the realm of your thoughts and actions, in your mental attitude, under the
variety of circumstances through which you pass in your conduct day by day, In
short, in your life as you make it, which is your world of
good or ill, in aiming at the life of blessedness. One of the
simplest beginnings to be considered and rightly made is that which we all make every
day, namely, the beginning of each day's life. How do you begin
each day? At what hour do you rise? How do you commence your
duties? In what frame of mind do you enter upon the sacred life of
a new day. What answer can you give your heart to these important questions?
You will find that much happiness or unhappiness follows upon the right or wrong
beginning of the day, and that when every day is wisely begun, happy
and harmonious sequences will mark its course, and life in its totality will not
fall short of the idle blessedness. It is a right and strong beginning to
the day to rise at an early hour, even if your worldly duty does
not demand it. It is wise to make of it a duty and begin
the day strongly by shaking off indolence. How are you to develop strength of
will and mind and body if you begin every day by yielding to weakness.
Self indulgence is always followed by unhappiness. People who lie abed till a late
hour are never bright and cheerful and fresh, but are the prey of irritabilities,
depressions, debilities, nervous disorders, abnormal fancies, and all unhappy moods.
This is the heavy price which they pay for their daily indolence. Yet
so blinding is the pandering to self that the drunkard who takes his daily dram
and the belief that it is bracing up the nerves which it is all the
time shattering. So the lie abed is convinced that long hours of ease are
necessary for him as a possible remedy for those very moods and weaknesses and disorders
of which his indolence is the cause. Men and women are totally unaware of
the great losses which they entail by this common indolence, loss of strength of
both mind and body, loss of prosperity, loss of knowledge, and loss
of happiness. Begin the day, then, by rising early, if you
have no object in doing so, never mind, get up and go out
for a gentle walk among the beauties of nature, and you will experience a
buoyancy, a freshness, and a delight, not to say, a peace
of mind, which will amply reward you for your effort. One good effort
is followed by another. And when a man begins the day by rising early,
even though with no other purpose in view, he will find that the
silent early hour is conducive to clearness of mind and calmness of thought, and
that his early morning walk is enabling him to become a consecutive thinker, and
so to see life in its problems as well as himself and his affairs in
a clearer light, and so in time he will rise early with the express
purpose of preparing and harmonizing his mind to meet any and every difficulty with wisdom
and calm strength. There is indeed a spiritual influence in the early morning hour,
a divine silence, an inexpressible repose. And he who purposeful and strong
throws off the mantle of ease and climbs the hills to greet the morning sun
will thereby climb no inconsiderable distance up the hills of blessedness and truth. The
right beginning of the day will be followed by cheerfulness at the morning meal,
permeating the household with a sunny influence, and the tasks and duties of the
day will be undertaken in a strong and confident spirit, and the whole day
will be well lived. Then there is a sense in which every day must
be regarded as the beginning of new life, in which one can think,
act and live newly and in a wiser and better spirit. Every day is
a fresh beginning. Every morn is the world made new. You who are
weary of sorrow and sinning, here is a beautiful hope for you, a
hope for me, and a hope for you. Do not dwell upon the
sins and mistakes of yesterday so exclusively as to have no energy and mind left
for living rightly today, And do not think that the sins of yesterday can
prevent you from living purely today. Begin to day aright, and, aided
by the accumulated experiences of all your past days, live it better than any
of your previous days. But you cannot possibly live it better unless you begin
it better. The character of the whole day depends upon the way it begins.
Another beginning, which is of great importance, is the beginning of any
particular and responsible undertaking. How does a man begin the building of a house?
First secures a plan of the proposed edifice, and then proceeds to build
according to the plan, scrupulously following it in every detail, beginning with the
foundation. Should he neglect the beginning, namely the obtaining of a mathematical plan,
his labor would be wasted, and his building, should it reach completion
without tumbling to pieces, would be insecure and worthless. The same law holds
good in any important work. The right beginning and first essential is a definite
mental plan on which to build nature will have no slipshod work, no slovenliness,
and she annihilates confusion, or rather confusion is in itself annihilation. Order,
purpose eternally and universally prevail. And he who, in his operations ignores
these mathematical elements at once deprives himself of sustainability, complete and success. Life
without a plan, as useless as the moment it began, serves merely as
a soil for discontent to thrive in an encumbrance ear hath spent. Let a
man start in business without having in his mind a perfectly formed plan to systematically
pursue, and he will be incoherent in his efforts and will fail in his
business operations. The laws which must be observed in the building of a house
also operate in the building up of a business. A definite plan is followed
by coherent effort, and coherent effort is followed by well knit and orderly results
to wit, completeness, perfection, success, happiness. But not only mechanical
and commercial enterprise, All undertakings of whatsoever nature come under this law. The
author's book, the artist's picture, the orator's speech, the reformer's work,
the inventor's machine, the general's campaign are all carefully planned in the mind before
the attempt to actualize them is commenced, and in accordance with the unity,
solidarity, and perfection of the original mental plan, will be the actual and
ultimate success of the undertaking. Successful men, influential men, good men are
those who, amongst other things, have learned the value and utilize the power
which lies in those obscure beginnings which the foolish man passes by as insignificant.
But the most important beginning of all, that upon which affliction or blessedness inevitably
depends, yet is most neglected and least understood, is the inception of a
thought in the hidden but casual region of the mind. Your whole life is
a series of effects of their cause and thought. In your own thought.
All conduct is made and melded by thought. All deeds, good or bad,
are thoughts made visible. A seed put into the ground is the beginning
of a plant or tree. The seed germinates, the plant or tree comes
forth into the light and evolves. A thought put into the mind is the
beginning of a line of conduct. The thought first sends down its roots into
the mind and then push us forth into the light in the forms of action
or conduct, which evolve into character and destiny. Hateful, angry, envious,
and impure thoughts are wrong beginnings which lead to painful results. Loving,
gentle kind, unselfish, and pure thoughts are right beginnings, which lead to
blissful results. This is so simple, so plain, so absolutely true,
and yet how neglected, how evaded, and how little understood. The gardener
who most carefully studies how, when and where to put his seeds obtains the
best results and gains the greater horticulture knowledge. The best crops gladden the soul
of him who makes the best beginning. The man who patiently studies how to
put into his mind the seeds of strong, wholesome, and charitable thoughts will
obtain the best results in life, and will gain greater knowledge of truth.
The greatest blessedness comes to him who infuses into his mind the purest and noblest
thoughts. None but right acts can follow right thoughts. None but a right
life can follow right acts, And by living a right life, all blessedness
is achieved. He who considers the nature and import of his thoughts, who
strives daily to eliminate bad thoughts and supplant them with good comes. At last,
to see that thoughts are the beginnings of results which affect every fiber of
his being, which potently influence every event and circumstance of his life. And
when he thus sees, he thinks only right thoughts, chooses to make only
those mental beginnings which lead to peace and blessedness. Wrong thoughts are painful in
their inception, painful in their growth, and painful in their fruitage. Right
thoughts are blissful in their inception, blissful in their growth, and blissful in
their footage. Many are the right beginnings which a man must discover and adopt
on his way to wisdom. But that which is first and last, most
important and all embracing, which is the source and fountain of all abiding happiness,
is the right beginning of the mental operations. This implies the steady development
of self control, will, power, steadfastness, strength, purity, gentleness,
insight, and comprehension. It leads to the perfecting of life. For
he who thinks perfectly has abolished all unhappiness. Every moment of his life is
peaceful, His years are rounded with bliss he has attained to the complete and perfect blessedness