Working in Truth

“Trust in the Lord with all thy heart, and lean not to thine own understanding, but in all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.”

To trust in God is not an inactive state of mind, and is not most apropos when everything is, to human sense, smooth sailing. We have more need of trust in God in time of outward storm than in time of outward calm.

To rightly trust in God is not a passive condition, but is to actively lay hold on and declare the supremacy, allness, and potency of the everlasting laws of God, good, and to keep doing this every moment, until we have won inward peace,—and not only peace, but joy,—and not only joy, but the conscious sense of power, the realization that no error can stand before us because we have consciously taken our stand with the law, the dynamic energy, of God. We are fighting with the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

If we can keep ourselves in this active realization of peace, joy in good, and power, at least part of the time daily, and especially if we can so reverse the arguments of mortal mind as to rise into this sense of spiritual power at those special times when error would argue the reality of discouragement, injustice, grief, separation, etc., to us, so that we shall maintain a peaceful consciousness all of the time, rising at times into the active, assertive realization of the presence and power of unity, justice, and love, the outward discord will soon disappear.

Error is most surely making headway in enforcing its so-called law, when it has induced us to listen to its argument for the reality of injustice, separation, misunderstanding, discouragement, grief, and other falsehoods, and this is just the time when error needs to be met. It is not wise to say to ourselves, Well, I will yield to this sense of discouragement, or smarting, or grief, or injustice, or what not, until the mood passes, and then, when I am not under temptation, when I feel calmer, I will work in the truth. To assume this attitude, is to allow error to entrench itself, which is always unwise and sometimes dangerous; it is to allow ourselves to get into a frame of mind where we are liable to do or say some unwise thing against our own right interests. Moreover, to assume this attitude is to sacrifice a golden opportunity.

If we make the initial effort, we shall find that we can rise to a clearness and strength of realization of the presence and active power of good in its various phases at the very time when temptation to doubt, discouragement, grief, anxiety, and the like is upon us, to a degree that we cannot attain to at any other time. The really brave man experiences a sense of courage in the face of danger that he could not possibly conjure up at a time when no danger was apparent. So the true Christian can realize a degree of love, at the very time when error is trying to argue hate or unfairness or jealousy, without or within, or both, that he otherwise would find difficulty in attaining.

Likewise, the true Christian, if he takes advantage of his opportunity, can realize joy in good,—joy in the knowledge that it is in his power to enforce good, joy in the certain prospect of seeing error, injustice, falsehood, narrowness, go down before the mental enforcement of Love,—to a degree that, at his present stage of growth, he cannot attain to except when he is spurred to rise to such a spiritual height by a conscious reaction against outward suggestions or occasions for grief, anxiety, or fear. And so the true Christian meets every outward phase of error, in the very moment of its appearing, with a superlative realization of the presence and potency of the opposing phase of good, and of his power through right mental work to enforce that phase of good to the overcoming and total destruction of the manifest phase of error. Thus hatred, malice, envy, jealousy, revenge, are met with the realization and mental enforcement of Love; injustice with the realization and enforcement of justice; fear with the realization and enforcement of the omnipotence of God, good.

Just as the courage of the trained soldier rises instantaneously and automatically in the face of danger, likewise we can rapidly so train ourselves that the disposition to the mental enforcement of the law of God, good, shall spring up in our consciousness instantaneously and spontaneously upon the appearance of error in any phase,—and this, too, as previously remarked, to a degree that we could not now attain to except in the face of some obstacle to be overcome. And it is this instantaneous, superlative realization and enforcement of good that is of supreme value in overcoming and destroying error. It does not permit us to virtually consent to the reality of error anywhere from a few hours to a few days before waking up to combat it, thus allowing error to entrench itself in our consciousness and in the outward situation; but it meets error on the spot, and with a clearness and potency of realization to which we could not attain if we were less prompt in turning to God; and thus error is stifled and cast into outer darkness, its native nothingness, often in the very moment of its seeming birth, and usually before it has assumed large apparent proportions.

In dealing with mental errors, such as anger, jealousy, injustice, selfishness, narrowness, as manifest through those with whom we are associated, it is usually wiser not to say very much audibly, or to be drawn into discussions, but to mentally enforce the law of God. “Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh (by human speech and understanding); for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God (Love) to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought (within or without) to the obedience of Christ.” If thou art obeying God, and art thus the child of God, “no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me saith the Lord.” Let us mentally enforce this law. Let us train ourselves to do it immediately and automatically and confidently whenever error asserts itself. “Watch.” “Pray (aspire after, realize and enforce good) without ceasing.” “Be instant in season, out of season.” Thus shall we uniformly have peace, joy and victory in God,—and ofttimes the more in the very moments when error is most assertive, until, at the last, we shall have part in the final victory when all error shall disappear, never to appear again.

Thus far the overcoming of discord in the mental realm has been spoken of; but discord in the so-called physical realm is to be removed in the same way. Apparent disease or weakness in the body should be instantly met with the realization and enforcement of the laws of harmony and strength, and the sense of poverty or accident should be overcome with the continued and vivid realization and declaration that plenty and order are the everlasting facts of being, and that there are no contrary facts. All that appears to the contrary is not fact, but destructible illusion.

The affairs of mortals, both mental and physical, often get into sad tangles, and grow worse and worse past their power to help; but this is not the case with true Christians. “All things work together for good to them that love God,” to them that love Him actively enough to be on the alert to realize and enforce His law, in their own consciousness first, and then outwardly in the circle of their legitimate affairs.