Harvey Hardman
Making Your Self the Master
© Harvey Hardman
Denver, Colorado, 1935.
from him that hath not, shall be taken away that which he hath.” — Jesus.
[145] This is not a conditional statement, Jesus did not say if a poor man is religious, the rule shall not apply to him. The text follows the parable of the talents, and is given as a condensed statement of the meaning of that parable. If you want abundance, then work, trade, be industrious, and keep your money busy too. “He that received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made other five.” Aside from the implied directions to be active, the story carries no definite instructions as to how to acquire abundance. It simply says that “Unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance.”
It is a striking fact that, much as the Bible has to say about the prosperity of the righteous and those that trust the Lord, no instruction is given that can be remotely considered as a definite formula for acquiring wealth. And there are some statements of the Master that are very confusing, when placed alongside others. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall inherit the kingdom of heaven. Human nature is pretty much the same in all times, and our observation of those who have abundance convinces us [146] he would speak his message in terms of our present order of life, and we would undertand him more easily. But he was dealing with Law, and it is our work to find that Law, even though it be hidden beneath strange parables and figures remote from our modern thought and idioms of speech. For the Law is a living thing, the same in all times, and if we seek we shall find it here, and be able to use it effectively now.
Jesus used many parables to define or explain what he called the Kingdom of Heaven, which according to him meant peace, happiness, abundance of good things. Once, in order to give concrete instructions, he said: “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things (food, raiment, abundance) shall be added unto you.”
The Law of abundance is an inner power; but when it is put into action by the individual, it results in things being added unto him. The center of power which acts in inward growth becomes a magnetic center of attraction when it is set in motion with regard to things and conditions.
Jesus speaks the stern truth: “Unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.” This [149] would be a stern judgment indeed, if limitation were a fixed and foreordained state for some, and abundance a secure order of life for others.
Let the one who has lived under the curse of poverty awaken to the divine Law, which knows no favoritism, and put it to work and work with it, and his limitation shall be turned into abundance.
He must divest his mind of the timidity which causes him to hide his talent. Let him see that inward action must precede outward increase, and begin to change his consciousness from one of lack to one of abundance, and he shall attain power and attract whatever is needed for the good life.
Recently a saleswoman came to consult with me. She was discouraged because for days she had made no sales. But she admitted that one young man on the force, working in the evenings after his studies and recitations in college, was making ten dollars a day, and doing it regularly. I said, “Yes, he has the confidence and courage that success instills in the heart. What you have to do is to fill your own heart with the enthusiasm and faith in your ability, before you succeed, that he has who has already succeeded. ‘When you pray, believe that you have received, and you shall receive.’ That is the Law. The mental image [150] of what you desire must actually be equal to the thing you desire.
“It requires mental work, meditation, realization of the power of the Master in you to attract the abundance which you picture in your mind. But if you picture failure, and think of difficulties in the way, such as so many salespeople selling the same line, and people in no mood to buy, you are reversing the Law against yourself, and the little success you have had dribbles away, and is diminished until, as you now say, you have nothing. ‘Unto him that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance.’ You must get the feeling and mental attitude that goes with abundance before you can get the thing itself, for our conditions are but the reflection of our states of mind.”
We must give less heed to the poverty which we do not want. Mind is the only power that can act, and we must not lose sight of the fact that it can act to demonstrate failure as well as success. It is a magnet, and like a natural magnet, has two poles. One pole attracts; the other repels. Be sure you turn the pole of attraction upon the object of your desire, for if you turn the other–fear and doubt and discouragement–toward the thing you want, it will push it away from you, [151] until you have less and less, even what you had being taken away from you.
By building the Kingdom of Heaven within through right thinking, we attract corresponding conditions without, and things are added unto us with the certainty of immutable law. And, grandest truth of all, the inner wealth cannot be lost or stolen, and should time and circumstance shift our outer possessions, the inner power will again attract as good or better. The things that are seen are temporal, may change and shift; the things that are not seen are eternal–the basis of enduring security and abundance.
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