Chapter XV
INEXHAUSTIBLE ABUNDANCE
W. John Murray
The
Realm of Reality
Divine Science Publishing Assoc.
New York, 1922.
“The Lord shall open unto
thee His good treasure, the heaven to
give the rain unto thy land in His
season, and to bless all the work of
thine hand, and thou shalt lend unto
many nations and thou shalt not
borrow.”
--Deut. 28:12
[170] In
these days of metaphysical investigation,
it is not surprising that thought is
turning in the direction of a more
general application of spiritual
psychology. Time was when men felt that
the employment of spiritual means for
what they called, in their ignorance,
material purposes was ignoble and
sacrilegious. Even today we seem to feel
that we may call upon the Infinite for
anything and everything, save money, and
yet when we examine the thought carefully
we see that it is based upon the belief
in opposites. We hesitate to implore
Spirit to act for us on what we call the
plane of the material, and by so doing we
defraud ourselves of those visible
blessings, the which, if we do not
possess, leave us little time or thought
for the contemplation of the Real. Life
that is [171] not visible in energy and
animation is not expressed, and
unexpressed Life is not appreciable
either to God or man.
Health and
strength which are not made visible in
clearness of eye, elasticity of step, and
in what men call physical endurance, may
as well be, and remain in kingdom come,
so far as the individual is concerned. In
like manner then, abundance or
prosperity, unless expressed, is a hollow
mockery to the man besieged by creditors
and haunted by the needs of his
family.
When all
earthly means have been exhausted, is the
individual to conclude that there is no
help for him in the Lord, since it is an
error to apply Spiritual Science on the
plane of the material? Who or what is it
that suggests a material plane? In the
Science of Spirit is there such a plane
as the plane of the material? And if so,
on what basis is it established?
If there is
a material plane, then there must be a
material foundation for it, and if there
is a material foundation, then God, or
Spirit, is not the Only Founder and
Foundation. “Other foundation shall
no man lay than that which is
laid.” To believe in another
foundation than that which is the only
Foundation, namely, Pure Spirit, is to be
a house divided against oneself.
When we
learn that there are not two planes--the
spiritual and the material--we shall not
try to “materialize spirits”
nor “spiritualize matter,”
for we shall have learned that a thing
can never be transformed into its
opposite. Money is not, [172] as some
suppose, the materialization of spiritual
substance; rather is it the visible
expression of Invisible Abundance.
It is we who
materialize money when we use it for
sinful purposes, just as we carnalize the
affections when we reduce them to
self-gratification. Materialization is
not the conversion of one substance into
its opposite, quite so much as it is our
mistaken or malicious use of that which
is in itself a particular expression of
the universal Reality. We have condemned
the flesh and thought we were following
the example of Jesus, who “came not
to condemn the flesh, but the sins which
are done in the flesh.” We have
despised wealth because of the false and
ignoble uses to which it has been put,
when we should have worked to acquire it
for the purpose of putting it to grand
and noble uses.
We have been
taught, by a fat and prosperous clergy,
to regard poverty as a virtue, but they
have not been nearly so eager to
cultivate this particular virtue as they
have been to make others comfortable in a
most uncomfortable position. Poverty is
no more a power to be submitted to than
is pain or profligacy, for it is all too
often the mother of both, and through
these it is the grandmother of an
innumerable progeny.
The best
that can be said in favor of poverty is
that it occasionally causes men to seek
divine guidance by which to escape from
it. On this principle we may declare that
pain is a positive good, since it causes
men to seek a remedy for it; [173] but
these declarations are based on a
one-sided view of things.
For
centuries we have faintly believed in the
therapeutic value of prayer. That we can,
through prayer, be liberated from or
sustained through painful experiences,
all true believers in God will readily
concede, but the Science of Christ
reveals to the receptive soul the
prophylactic value of prayer. Prevention
is better than cure, and the prevention
of poverty is a subject that is
frequently under discussion these
days.
To instruct
humanity in the Law of unlimited
Abundance is to enable them to turn to
the Inexhaustible Source, which is God,
and this is the work of the true educator
and emancipator. To teach humanity,
individually and collectively, that God
is the source of supply, and that
“There is no lack in Him in Whom
all fullness lies,” is the function
of the real philanthropist.
Man, knowing
his relation to the universe, is an inlet
to the Over-Soul. Becoming a channel in
himself, through spiritual understanding,
he depends less and less on other
channels, and more and more on the Source
of these. Having freely received through
other channels from the One and Only
Source, we must freely give,
continuously, however, pointing the gaze
upward so that others, too, will
presently tap the Reservoir directly,
instead of indirectly.
We must
learn sometime, somewhere, somehow, that
dependence on anything short of the [174]
Dependable is a looking to the creature
instead of the Creator, and that such
dependence is false and must eventuate in
disappointment. “Put not your trust
in princes,” said the Psalmist--not
that the princes are unreliable always,
but because they, too, are tributary to
the King. We must learn that we also are
princes, children of the King, and that
in the court of Spirit there are no
favorites.
Man, in his
ignorance, would separate man from man
and all men from God; but God in His
infinite wisdom ever unifies and knits
all together in bonds of love. He causeth
prosperity, like the rain, to fall upon
the just and the unjust alike, and this
because His love is impartial and
universal.
When we see
an unjust rich man we are prone to
declare that evil succeeds where goodness
fails, and then we question the justice
of God, forgetful of the fact that there
is a psychological and scientific reason
for this apparent injustice and
favoritism.
Not knowing
that man is the Expression of God in all
that God is, we seem to feel that each
individual can express the Universal only
in some one particular direction. On this
false assumption we declare that the
literateur and the artist must of
necessity be impecunious. Art and true
literature may have nothing to do with a
sinful commercialism, but if the artist
and literateur leave out from their
calculations the commercial value of
their productions, they are apt to starve
[175] in a garret, or subsist on the
crumbs which fall from other men’s
tables. On the other hand, we often hear
it said that men of wealth cannot, by
reason of their wealth and attendant
responsibilities, be spiritually minded,
and in support of this we have the story
of the camel and the eye of the needle
repeated to us. If man expresses Deity in
Prosperity, a limited understanding of
Man’s possibilities as the
reflection of the Infinite asserts that
he cannot express Deity in Purity. If man
is pure he cannot be prosperous, says
finite belief, and thus we argue for
limitation and finiteness. When the
individual learns that he is the complete
reflection of the universal, he will know
that that is not a perfect “image
and likeness” which reflects only
in part. “A righteous man thinketh
that which is righteous,” and
whilst he does so and walketh uprightly,
he shall have the Lord favorable unto him
in all his enterprises.
If the Bible
promises healing and health as the result
of righteousness, or right thinking, it
also promises immunity from poverty. The
foolish belief that poverty is a virtue
should not close our eyes to the sacred
assurances of Holy Writ. If an unjust man
be a rich man it is only an evidence of
the fact that he has concentrated on
riches to the exclusion of righteousness,
but this is no proof against the fact
that he might have had both riches and
righteousness had he been so minded. If a
pure man be poor it is no evidence that
poverty is the natural accompaniment of
purity; it is only an indication of the
common error in [176] believing that no
one man can reflect God in all His
attributes. The tiniest dew-drop or the
tiniest blade of grass, as well as the
limpid surface of the largest lake,
reflects the sun, not in part but in its
entirety. Man, as the manifestation of
the Invisible Whole, cannot be the slave
of limitation except by his own ignorance
or weakness of consent, and it is just
these errors that Truth comes to
destroy.
As ignorance
makes for slavery, so enlightenment makes
for emancipation, and here, again, we are
to rise superior to the belief in
limitation. Emancipation from one
task-master, while remaining in bondage
to others, is not absolute freedom, and
nothing short of absolute freedom can be
likened to “the glorious liberty of
the children of God.” “By
humility and the love of the Lord are
riches and honor, and life,” says
the wise man, and we should lay as much
emphasis on the one as the other. The
only danger comes from emphasizing one
more than the other. One boasts that
honor is preferable to riches. Another
thinks he must sacrifice honor to acquire
riches, while still another is so fearful
of bodily injury that he will sacrifice
honor and riches to save his skin.
From whence
cometh this distorted view of things, if
it is not from the belief that man can
never be the unlimited Expression of
Un-Limited Mind? That the individual may
manifest one or more of the attributes of
the universal is almost generally
conceded, but that the Individual may
[177] manifest all the Deific
characteristics is a Truth which
comparatively few can appreciate, and
hence it is that while we strive to be
satisfied with health minus wealth, and
wealth minus health, we instinctively
reach out for both, and this because it
is according to the Law of Complete
Abundance that we should have both.
“There
is a spirit in man,” says Job, and
it is this very spirit which some speak
of as the Divine urge which ever protests
against anything short of Perfection. The
nearer the spirit (thought) in man
approaches the spirit (thought) of God,
the more it appreciates its likeness to
this spirit of the Real, and the more
apparent does it become that poverty,
like pain, is a flaw in an otherwise
perfect gem. The most perfect gem is a
righteous mind, but that is not a
flawless mind in which the slightest
cloud of fear or doubt appears, and the
fear of poverty obscures the sun of joy
and gladness in many a heart. To what,
then, shall we turn in our dilemma if it
is not to the Divine Lapidary? Like
traders in precious stones, we may be
satisfied that our particular gem of
character cannot be improved upon.
We have not
regarded poverty as a mental flaw quite
so much as we have considered it an
unavoidable circumstance--therefore, we
present our mental gem to the scrutiny of
the Divine Lapidary in the belief that it
is a facsimile of His own, and lo! it is
returned to us for correction. The human
mind in its spiritual state [178] is an
exact reproduction of Divine Mind, the
very “image and likeness of
God,” and for this reason the
Divine Lapidary points out the flaw.
Having failed to observe it, or having
observed it, to excuse it as an evidence
of virtuousness we present it, and not
until its imperfection, as a true copy,
is made clear to us do we awake from our
delusion. The eye of the expert sees what
we have not seen.
Looking into
the soul of man, it detects what cannot
be found in God, namely, a belief in
insufficiency. Now, in the Mind which is
God, there is no such belief, and no
ground for it, since “there is no
lack in Him in Whom all fulness
lies,” and the recognition of this
fact, coupled with the understanding that
Man is the manifestation of the
Unmanifested, will dissipate the
delusion. “Yea, the Almighty shall
be thy defence, and thou shalt have
plenty of silver.” In relying upon
these promises of the ever-beneficent
Lord of Hosts, we cultivate the habit of
serene trust. A serene trust is something
entirely different from a blind hope, and
its difference lies in this, that it is
based on the conviction that “God
shall supply all your needs according to
His riches in glory by Christ
Jesus.” Not a few, not a great
number, but all your needs are to
be supplied through a knowledge of Truth.
“And the Lord (Truth) shall guide
thee continuously and satisfy thy soul in
drought, and make fat thy bones; and thou
shalt be like a watered [179] garden and
like a spring of water whose waters fail
not.”
There are
two statements, often used, sometimes
accepted, but as often rejected.
“Be good, and you will be
happy,” is a true declaration, but
there are many good people who are not
happy, and there is a saying which has
grown out of this one, and it is,
“Be good, and you will be
lonesome.” It does not seem to
follow that because man is good he will
be happy. Some of the best men we know
are not happy, but this is not because
they are good, but because with all their
goodness they are, all too frequently,
sorry for themselves. They know they are
good, and they cannot understand why
everybody else does not know it, and
praise them for it. Goodness is its own
recompense, and one should be happy
because he is good, if for no other
reason. The consciousness that one is
doing the best he can under all
circumstances is a certain remedy for
unhappiness. A man may not
directly create the most
harmonious conditions for himself, but he
can so order his thought that these
indirectly will eventuate in
producing such conditions as are most
desirable.
Another
statement which is often used is,
“Seek first the kingdom of God and
His righteousness, and all these things
shall be added unto you,” and while
this also is true, have we not seen those
who have most diligently endeavored to
live the spiritual life confronted with
the most distressing poverty? What is the
answer? Surely it is not [180] because a
man seeks the kingdom of God that he is
poor. May it not be that, with all his
seeking, there is a lurking fear of lack?
And may not this obsession be the
sediment in the channel which prevents
the free flow of the Substance which,
when expressed on the objective plane, we
call money? To trust God with one-half of
our minds and to fear poverty with the
other half is to be “a house
divided against itself,” and hence
the failure to demonstrate.
If we are
mindful that the Source of all wealth is
omnipresent and inexhaustible, and also
remember that this Source is saying in
its still small voice, “Behold, all
that I have is thine,” we shall get
ready to accept that which God has so
richly provided, as did the widow when
the prophet told her to “Go, borrow
thee vessels, abroad of all thy
neighbors, even empty vessels, borrow not
a few.” This illustrates the need
of preparation as well as prayer. To pray
for oil, but to get no vessels to put it
in, is to defeat the purpose for which we
pray. To pray for prosperity and to doubt
its appearance in our lives because we
cannot see at the moment how, or through
what particular channel, it is going to
come to us, is to make it impossible for
it to manifest through us at all.
It is not
necessary for us to think in terms of
specific sums as when one
“visualizes” a particular
amount, for this is to limit the
Illimitable, on the principle that
“One cannot get a three-inch [181]
stream through a one-inch pipe.”
Our thought must not be of some special
manifestation of wealth, but of Wealth
itself, which as we think Wealth will
tend to flow into us through innumerable
channels, even as water tends to flow
from a higher to a lower level into such
receptacles as man or nature has provided
for it. And just as water which flows
into any vessel tends to assume the form
of that vessel, and of no other, so
unlimited Substance, or Opulence, will
assume the shape of that which is most
needed at the moment.
There is one
point that must not be forgotten in this
matter of seeking first the Source and
having all things added, and this is that
the channel must be as wide on the
dispensing as it is on the receiving end;
otherwise harmonious circulation will be
interfered with. Man is not a funnel with
the big end held in the direction of the
Source of Supply, and the little end in
the direction of other men. To expect
abundance from God, and at the same time
to be afraid to spend for that which is
really necessary, is like squeezing a
hose-pipe so that what might be a good
sized flow of opulence becomes a mere
trickling stream which hardly suffices to
meet Caesar’s demands from day to
day. It is not that God’s supply is
limited, nor is it always that our demand
is too small, all too frequently it is
because our distribution is niggardly and
mean.
To affirm
Opulence in order to get it, and then to
plead poverty in order to excuse
ourselves from [182] giving to worthy
charities and holy causes, is like
screwing a metal cap on a fire hydrant.
There is plenty of water in the
reservoir, but none for the fire; and
hence, through the fire of indignation at
so-called “Christian
conduct,” is destroyed the faith of
many which might have been preserved if
the cap of parsimoniousness had been
removed.
Whatever the
phase of poverty may be--spiritual,
intellectual, or financial--we may have
recourse to the Inexhaustible Font, for
“God is able to make all grace
abound toward you, that ye, always having
all sufficiency in all
things may abound in every good
work.” Claiming abundance for the
purpose of dispensing it, we become free
and open channels. Circulation and not
stagnation is the law, and this order
will become more general as men cease
from their fears of “future
poverty,” which is as much the
haunting specter of the rich as of the
poor. Let us know, then, once and for
all, “As He is so are we in this
world.” As He is Life, Truth and
Love, so is He Substance, and for this
reason our Substance is imperishable as
our Life is indestructible. “I
cause those that love Me to inherit
Substance, and I will fill their
treasuries.” Accepting Substance as
literally as we accept Life and Health,
we shall enter into our inheritance.
Poverty, like pain, shall flee away and
Universal Prosperity shall be the natural
consequence of spiritual
enlightenment.
Chapter
16
* * * * *
The Realm of Reality
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