Chapter 10
RIGHT
GIVING, THE KEY TO ABUNDANT
RECEIVING
Charles Fillmore
Prosperity
THERE IS a law of giving
and receiving and it requires careful
study if we would use it in our
prosperity demonstrations. It is a law
of mind action, and it can be learned
and applied the same as any other law.
The teaching of Jesus stands out
prominently, because it can be
practically applied to the affairs of
everyday life. It is not alone a
religion in the sense that word is
usually taken but is a rule of
thinking, doing, living, and being. It
is not only ethical but practical, and
men have never yet sounded the depths
of the simple but all-inclusive words
of Jesus. To some people it is
unthinkable to connect the teaching of
Jesus with the countinghouse and the
market place, but a deeper insight into
their meaning and purpose, which the
Spirit of Truth is now revealing to the
world, shows that these lofty teachings
are the most practical rules for daily
living in all departments of life. They
are vital to modern civilization and
the very foundation of business
stability. The law of giving and
receiving that Jesus taught, "Give, and
it shall be given unto you," is found
to be applicable to all our commercial
as well as our social
relationships.
We have not been more
successful in making this doctrine of
Jesus a practical standard for everyday
guidance because we have not understood
the law on which it is based. Jesus
would not have put forth a doctrine
that was not true and not based on
unchanging law, and we can be sure that
this doctrine of giving and receiving
is powerful enough to support all the
affairs of civilization. We have not
gone deeply enough into the teaching
but have thought we understood it from
a mere surface study. "Ye look at the
things that are before your face," says
Paul, and Jesus also warned us to
"judge not according to appearance." We
should form no conclusions until we
have gone thoroughly into the causes
and the underlying laws. The things we
see outwardly are the effects that have
arisen from causes that are invisible
to us. There is an inner and an outer
to everything: both the mental and the
material conditions pervade the
universe. Man slides at will up and
down the whole gamut of cause and
effect. The whole race slides into an
effect almost unconsciously and so
identifies the senses with the effect
that the causes are lost sight of for
thousands of years.
An awakening comes in
time and the cause side of existence is
again brought to the attention of men,
as set forth, for example, in the
doctrine of Jesus Christ. But men
cannot grasp the great truth in a
moment and cling to what is plainly
visible to them, the effect side. The
truth that things have a spiritual as
well as a material identity and that
the spiritual is the cause side and of
greatest value, is a revelation that
may be slow in coming to most people.
In this instance it is the material
side that they cling to, thinking it to
be all and refusing to let go. Men have
taken the letter or appearance side of
the Jesus Christ doctrine and
materialized it to fit their beliefs
and customs. That is the reason why the
Christ message has not purified
commerce, society, and government. But
it should be made spiritually operative
in those fields. It will easily do the
work desired when its mental side is
studied and when it is understood and
applied from the spiritual
viewpoint.
There is need for reform
in economics more than in any other
department of everyday life. Money has
been manipulated by greed until greed
itself is sick and secretly asks for a
panacea. But it does not look to the
religion of Jesus Christ for healing.
In fact that is the very last place it
would apply for aid, because many of
the advocates of the Jesus Christ
doctrine are themselves economic
dependents and have no solution for the
economic problem--not understanding the
power of their own religion. Yet no
permanent remedy will ever be found for
the economic ills of the world outside
a practical application of the laws on
which the doctrine of Jesus Christ is
based.
The correctness of the
solution of any problem is assured by
the right relation of its elements. All
true reform begins with the individual.
Jesus began there. He did not clamor
for legislation to control men or their
actions. He called His twelve apostles
and through them individually
instituted that reform which has as its
basis an appeal to the innate
intelligence, honesty, and goodness in
every man. He told them, "Go ye into
all the world, and preach the gospel to
the whole creation."
As people learn more
definitely about the dynamic effect of
thought and how ideas pass from mind to
mind, they see more and more the wisdom
of the Christ teaching. They are
beginning to understand that there is
one undeviating law of mind action and
that all thinking and all speaking is
amenable to it. Thus when Jesus said,
"By thy words thou shalt be justified,
and by thy words thou shalt be
condemned," He taught the power of
thoughts and words to bring results in
accordance with the ideas back of
them.
Following the
metaphysical side of the teaching of
Jesus, we have found that certain
thoughts held in the minds of the
people are causing widespread misery,
disease, and death. We have also found
that these thoughts can be dissolved or
transformed and the whole man made over
through his conscious volition. Paul
well understood this process. He said,
"Be ye transformed by the renewing of
your mind."
Among the destructive
thoughts that men indulge in and
exercise are those forms of selfishness
which we know as avarice, covetousness,
money getting, the desire for financial
gain and for possessing the things of
the world. These thoughts threaten
seriously to disturb the civilization
of the world and the stability of the
whole race. The sole thought of money
getting is being allowed by men and
women to generate its cold vapor in
their souls until it shuts out all the
sunlight of love and even of life. The
remedy for the misery caused by
destructive thoughts is not far to
seek. It lies in constructive thinking
along the lines that Jesus laid down.
Indeed the remedy for all the ills to
which flesh is heir lies in conformity
to the divine law that Jesus revealed
to His true followers. It is said of
these true followers (Acts 4:32) that
they were "of one heart and soul: and
not one of them said that aught of the
things which he possessed was his own;
but they had all things
common."
Many true Christians
have observed this righteous law and
sought to conform to it in community
life. Such efforts have not always been
successful, because there was not the
necessary recognition of the mental
factor and the discipline of ideas. So
long as the idea of covetousness is
lodged in the human mind as its
dominant generating factor, there can
be no successful community life. That
idea must be eliminated from the mental
plane first; the next step, the outer
practice, will then be safe and
successful.
Everywhere true
metaphysicians are preparing themselves
to be members in the great colony that
Jesus is to set up, by working to
eliminate from their mind all selfish
ideas, along with all other discordant
vibrations that produce inharmony among
members of the same group. A step in
this direction is the gradual
introduction of the "freewill offering"
plan to replace the world's commercial
standard of reward for services. We are
striving to educate the people on this
question of giving and receiving and to
let their own experience prove to them
that there is a divine law of
equilibrium in financial matters that
corresponds to the law of balance and
poise that holds the suns and the
planets in place. In order to make a
success of this great effort we must
have the loving co-operation of
everyone to whom we minister. The law
is based on love and justice, and it
equitably and harmoniously adjusts all
the affairs of men. It goes even
further, for it restores a harmony and
balance in both mind and body that
results in happiness and health as well
as prosperity. Love and justice are
mighty powers, and all things must
eventually come under their influence,
because even a few men and women of
right motive can, by right thinking and
consequent just action, introduce these
ideas into the race consciousness and
pave the way for their universal
adoption. The movement has already
begun and is rapidly gaining headway.
Every student and reader is asked to
give it impetus by resolving to be
unselfish and just without
compulsion.
The race consciousness
is formed of thought currents and the
dominant beliefs of all the people. A
few men and women rise above these
currents of thought and become
independent thinkers. The dominating
race idea of money getting as the goal
of success is now being replaced by the
idea of usefulness and good works. This
idea must be carried out by individuals
who have resolved to think and to act
in the Jesus Christ way. To be one of
these individuals and to contribute to
the change in the race consciousness,
first dedicate yourself in Spirit to
the ministry of Jesus and resolve to
carry forward the great work He has
commissioned you to do. This does not
mean that you must preach like Paul or
necessarily carry on any extensive work
in the outer. In the silence of your
"inner chamber" you can do a mighty
work of power by daily denying the
beliefs in avarice and covetousness and
affirming the universal sway of divine
love and justice. You can make the idea
of exact equity and justice between man
and man the central theme of all your
saying and doing. When you see examples
of greed and avarice or when thoughts
of these seek a place in your mind,
remember the words of the Master: "What
is that to thee? follow thou
me."
Never for a moment allow
yourself to entertain any scheme for
getting the better of your fellows in
any trade or bargain. Hold steadily to
the law of equity and justice that is
working in and through you, knowing for
a certainty that you are supplied with
everything necessary to fulfill all
your requirements. Give full value for
everything you get. Demand the same for
everything you give, but do not try to
enforce that demand by human methods.
There is a better way: think of
yourself as Spirit working with
powerful spiritual forces, and know
that the demands of Spirit must and
will be met.
Do not plan to lay up
for the future; let the future take
care of itself. To entertain any fears
or doubts on that point saps your
strength and depletes your spiritual
power. Hold steadily to the thought of
the omnipresence of universal supply,
its perfect equilibrium and its swift
action in filling every apparent vacuum
or place of lack. If you have been in
the habit of hoarding or of practicing
stringent economy, change your thought
currents to generosity. Practice
giving, even though it may be in a
small way. Give in a spirit of love and
give when you cannot see any
possibility of return. Put real
substance into your gift by giving the
substance of the heart with the token
of money or whatever it is. Through the
power of your word you can bless and
spiritually multiply everything that
you give. See yourself as the steward
of God handing out His inexhaustible
supplies. In this manner you are
setting into action mental and
spiritual forces that eventually bring
large results into visibility. Be happy
in your giving. God loves a cheerful
giver because his mind and heart are
open to the flow of the pure substance
of Being that balances all
things.
Do not give with any
idea that you are bestowing charity.
The idea of charity has infested the
race consciousness for thousands of
years and is responsible for the great
army of human dependents. Do all you
can to annul this mental error. There
is no such thing as charity as
popularly understood. Everything
belongs to God and all His children are
equally entitled to it. The fact that
one has a surplus and gives some of it
to another does not make the one a
benefactor and the other a dependent.
The one with the surplus is simply a
steward of God and is merely
discharging the work of his
stewardship. When one asks for divine
wisdom and understanding about giving
it becomes a joy both to the giver and
the recipient.
Followers of Jesus who
are doing His work of teaching and
healing should, like Him, receive
free-will offerings for their ministry
to the people. The majority of those
who apply to teachers and healers
recognize this law of giving and
receiving, but there are quite a number
who do not understand it. First there
are those who are in bondage to the
idea of avarice, and secondly, there
are those who still are in bondage to
the idea of charity. Both these classes
need education and treatment to release
them from mental limitation and mental
disease. The avaricious suffer most in
body and are the most difficult to
heal, because of the mental bias that
prompts them to get everything as
cheaply as possible, including the
kingdom of heaven. They must be
patiently educated to be just because
it is right, and to learn to "let go"
of the acquisitive spirit and replace
it with the spirit of generosity. They
will do this readily enough as a mental
drill but are not so willing to let go
of the money symbol. However, continued
treatments in the silence, supplemented
with oral and written instruction, will
eventually prevail and heal
them.
There are many examples
that could be given to prove the
outworking of the law. The covetous
idea has a great power over the body.
It would avail little to treat the
outer manifestation before first
removing the inner cause from the mind.
The salvation of such people is to
learn to give generously and freely,
not from compulsion or for the sake of
reward but from a love of the giving.
Some metaphysicians think to cure their
patients of the hold of avaricious
thoughts by charging them a good round
price for their treatments. By the same
token the medical doctor who charges
the most is surest to heal his
patients, and any service for which an
exorbitant price is charged is the
best! Surely this would be a foolish
idea. Metaphysical healing has become
so popular that hundreds have gone into
it as a business and are making of it
an industry founded on the old
commercial idea, just as cold and
calculating, as hard and unyielding as
the idea is in the ranks of the
money-changers of mammon.
Surely there is a "more
excellent way," one more in harmony
with divine law, a way that permits the
heart as well as the head and hand to
be used in the grace of giving and
receiving. Those who are using the
freewill offering method meet with some
criticism and opposition from those who
hold to the commercial method and say
that charging a definite sum is the
legitimate way. They accuse Unity of
fostering charity and poverty and
keeping alive the spirit of getting
something for nothing that is
manifested by so many people. Our reply
is that we are pursuing the only course
that could ever effectually eradicate
these erroneous states of consciousness
and bring people into an understanding
of the spiritual law of prosperity
through giving in love.
Everyone should give as
he receives; in fact, it is only
through giving that he can receive.
Until the heart is quickened at the
center and the mind is opened up to
Truth there is no permanent healing.
Everyone can make a fair return for
everything he gets. We aim to show
moneyless paupers that they can give
something in return for the good that
has been done them. It may be to pass
the true word to some other needy one,
or merely to lift up their voice in
thanksgiving and praise where before
they were dumb. We recognize the
necessity of some action of the
mammon-bound mind. It must be made to
let go somewhere before it can receive
the light and the power of
Spirit.
Our work is to bring men
and women to the place of true and
lasting dominion where they are
superior to both riches and poverty. We
can do this by showing them that they
are spiritual beings, that they live in
a spiritual world here and now, and
that through the apprehension of the
Truth of their being and their relation
to God this dominion is to be
realized.
The central and most
vital fact that they must come to
realize is that an idea has the power
of building thought structures, which
in turn materialize in the outer
environment and affairs and determine
every detail of their existence. Every
man is a king ruling his own subjects.
These subjects are the ideas existing
in his mind, the "subjects" of his
thought. Each man's ideas are as varied
and show as many traits of character as
the inhabitants of any empire. But they
can all be brought into subjection and
made to obey through the I AM power
that is the ruler of the kingdom. In
your domain of mind there may be
colonies of alien ideas--the
Philistines, Canaanites, and other
foreign tribes, that the Children of
Israel found in their Promised Land
when they attempted to take possession
of it. The story of the Children of
Israel and how they gained the
possession of that land is a symbolical
representation of the experience of
everyone who seeks to reclaim his own
consciousness in the name of the Lord.
The meaning in Hebrew of the name
Canaanite is "merchant" or "trader"; in
other words, a set of ideas that has to
do with the commercial phase of life.
Study the Children of Israel (spiritual
ideas) in their experiences with these
Canaanites and you will get many
valuable hints on subduing and handling
your own money-getting
ideas.
You may allow
avariciousness and stinginess to
develop in your mind domain until the
very blood in your body starts to dry
up and your nerves are shaken and
palsied with the fear of future
poverty. If so, it is time these ideas
were driven out and a new set of ideas
settled in your domain to become active
in building up a new state of
consciousness (nation). Begin at once
to let go of your all-consuming
thoughts of gain. Think about
generosity and begin to be generous for
your own sake. "It is more blessed to
give than to receive" will prove itself
to you as the law, for you will be
blessed by a new influx of ideas of
life, health, and prosperity when you
start giving.
Instead of being
grasping and avaricious, perhaps you
have gone to the other extreme and have
cultivated ideas of small things
financially. You may have been
fostering poverty by holding ideas of
pennies instead of dollars or of
hundreds instead of thousands. You may
be thinking that you cannot give
because your income is small or your
supply is limited. Your remedy is to
cultivate ideas of abundance. Claim God
as your inexhaustible resource; that
all things are yours. But in order to
set in motion the accumulated energy of
your thought you must also begin to
give. You may be able to give only
pennies at first, but give them in the
name and the spirit of your opulent
God. Send them forth with all the love
of your heart and say to them as they
go, "Divine love through me blesses and
multiplies you."
Your consciousness is
like a stream of water. If the stream
is in any way dammed up, the water
settles in all the low places and
becomes stagnant. The quickest way to
purify and reclaim the low, "swampy"
places in your consciousness is to let
in the flood from above by opening the
dam. Many people try to demonstrate God
as their supply by repeating
affirmations of abundance now present,
but fail to deny and thus to let go of
the old condition and old belief in
lack by beginning to give as generously
as possible. It is not the amount you
give measured by standards of the
world, it is the good will you send
forth with the gift; which can be
measured only by spiritual
standards.
"God loveth a cheerful
giver." The Greek word here translated
cheerful is hilarion, which means
really "hilarious, joyful." The gift
may be measured in dollars and cents
but God looks not on such standards, He
looks on and loves the "joyful" giver.
We read in Deuteronomy 28:47, 48,
"Because thou servedst not Jehovah thy
God with joyfulness, and with gladness
of heart, by reason of the abundance of
all things; therefore shalt thou serve
thine enemies ... in hunger, and in
thirst, and in nakedness, and in want
of all things." This shows that there
is a definite relation between the
cheerfulness or joyfulness of our
giving and our prosperity. Whether we
make a large or a small gift, let us
make it with largeness of cheer and
joy, even of hilarity, remembering that
God loveth a "hilarious" giver. "Keep
therefore the words of this covenant,
and do them, that ye may prosper in all
that ye do."
Blessings That May Be
Placed On Our Gifts
Divine love, through me,
blesses and multiplies this
offering.
The Father gives
abundantly; I receive thankfully, and
give again generously.
This is the bounty of
God, and I send it forth with wisdom
and joy.
Divine love bountifully
supplies and increases this
offering.
I give freely and
fearlessly, fulfilling the law of
giving and receiving.
