CHAPTER IV

Inspiration in Work

Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.

Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith Jehovah of hosts.

EVERY HUMAN being is a dynamo of concentrated creative energy, ever seeking

avenues of expression. And when the right avenues have been found and there is

nothing to prevent the free and full manifestation of this energy, then heavenly

joy is realized, and this continues as the fruits of the creative work return to

glorify their source.

WORK VERSUS LABOR

Work is divine, and everyone who is normal in mind and body loves work—not labor but work; for there is a distinction between work and labor. The first is the

creative activity of God, congenial, inspired with love, one with play, and one

with rest. True work is the result of choice; it is never obligatory nor limited by

time or space. Work is done from the heart, and there is no curse upon it, for the

worker obeys the inner voice and ever seeks its sanction in all that he does.

But labor is work mixed with false thoughts and feelings, and therefore its fruits

are not happiness and freedom. It is unspiritual living and ignorance of his divine

origin that brings man to the place where he must labor in the sweat of his face,

become a slave to others, be imposed upon, and have cruelty and injustice

heaped upon him. To escape the misery and degradation of undesirable and

brutish labor man must get knowledge about himself and his fellow beings, and

above all he must know the true God and the reason of Jesus Christ’s coming and

the way to live the Christ life.

SOLVING THE LABOR QUESTION

Men may change their environment and their master, may seek new work and

make new laws, but as long as they are content to sit in spiritual darkness and

ignore the God within them the problem of labor will go unsolved. Social and

economic systems grow out of men’s views of life and the passions that dominate

them. If these are radically wrong the systems are false, and only as Christ ideals

are held uppermost in the mind, and human passions are turned from earthly

power and money—the passions of the poor as well as the rich—can new systems

arise, true laws be enacted, and the curse of the old order pass away.

There is for everyone a congenial work; it is

that which he can do most happily and successfully; that in which he can feel himself in tune with his own soul and the souls of his fellow human beings.

THE RULE OF THE WORD

The most direct way to this work is to follow the rule of the word.

To the novice in spiritual methods this statement will need explanation and

enlargement.

First of all, let us understand and agree upon this, that all is mind; in other words, that matter and motion, the two components in which scientists once

classified all the parts and phases of creation, are mind stuff and the play of mind stuff upon itself—in the highest terms, God substance and God working.

Thought is mind in motion, and every activity upon this earth begins as a

thought. The nature of an activity can be decided by the quality of the thought

that was its origin and the thoughts that followed and were its modifiers. When

a thought comes out of abstraction into the definite form of a word, it is like

electricity, and can be conserved, directed, and used, as its thinker wills.

As molds determine the form of the melted metal that is poured into them, so the word decides the outer form that thoughts are to take in the realm of

appearances.

As molds are patterned after certain ideals in the mind of their creator, so our words should be spoken from our higher consciousness, the heavenly ideals that

are now true in God.

The rule of the word is to speak ever, in the present tense, the Truth as it is in

God, using positive affirmations with reference to the good only and strong

denials with reference to evil. It is to look to the word as the God-appointed

means of bringing into the visible that good which still seems invisible to our

earthly senses.

YOUR CONGENIAL WORK

There is a direct line between you and the work that you desire to do, the

position that you can best fill. This line remains ever the same, and you move

along it by the power of your true word, and the truth you speak is that which

applies to your divine self, which is ever in its right place and doing its

harmonious and happy work.

Following this rule, you declare:

I am now in my right place. I am now doing the work I love to do.

According to appearances, these words may seem untrue. But you are not speaking from the stand point of appearances but from the standpoint of the real.

"But." you may say, "if words have such power,

will not such statements keep me in my present position and work, which are so undesirable and so distasteful to me?”

Not unless this position and work are quite transformed and become truly representative of your heavenly state and activity. This sometimes takes place

under the word.

As you continue gathering spiritual thoughts and ruling your silent mental speech

as well as your audible words according to the highest ideals, you may discover

that you are where you are in order to redeem certain traits of character that

militate against your spiritual advancement and therefore interfere with your

earthly prosperity also. Then it will be wisdom for you to cast yourself fervently

upon the divine Presence, prepared to be moved and placed just when and where

the supernal will decrees, while you still hold the true word. By so doing you save

yourself many unnecessary, even painful, experiences, the result of the

unregenerate nature’s interfering.

be most congenial; one may even feel that one is not yet fitted for the work that

would most appeal. In either case Christ abandonment to the divine will is

wisdom, and perfect trust in the love of our heavenly Father is the surest road to

the work wherein lies our supreme success.

A PROSPERITY MEDITATION

Eliminate every false thought from the work in which you are now engaged, and whether you be an employer or an employee meditate often upon such thoughts

as these:

I cannot grow weary in well-doing.

I cannot be overworked.

No mortal can enslave me.

No person or institution can bind me.

I am fearless and true.

No false system can use me or abuse me.

I am God’s free man, I am God’s noble man.

I "work not for the food which perisheth,

but for the food which abideth unto eternal life, which the Son of man shall give

unto” me.

Nothing is laborious to me. I am not a hireling.

Money is no object to me.

I serve the Lord in all lovingly, faithfully, abundantly, and I trust the Lord in all to

serve me richly, honorably, truly.

I am redeemed from every curse of labor.

Secretly Secretly as well as openly I do my best.

All my work is on honor.

Competition is nothing to me. Another’s success cannot take my success away.

My own comes to me. I have no rivals. I know no enemies.

I rejoice in my neighbor’s success. Slander cannot hurt me, for I envy no man. Bitterness and

strife have no place in my affairs. Only the elements of harmony can enter into my business. I

draw to me those who love truth and honor. I fear no lack for my loved ones. They attract prosperity even

as I do.

I gravitate to the highest, most valuable, most useful and

happiest position and work that I can now fulfill to the honor of

man and the glory of God.

Emerson says in “Spiritual Laws”:

“Each man has his own vocation. The talent is the call. There is one direction in

which all space is open to him. He has faculties silently inviting him thither to

endless exertion. He is like a ship in a river; he runs against obstructions on

every side but one; on that side all obstruction is taken away and he sweeps

serenely over a deepening channel into an infinite sea. . . .

"By doing his work he makes the need felt which he can supply, and creates the taste by which he is enjoyed. By doing his own work he unfolds himself.”

“HAVING DONE ALL, TO STAND”

When a person seems not yet to realize the

Absolute and has no position at all, yet everything is crying out in him and

through those near and dear to him for the sustenance that he still feels must

come by the law of cause and effect, what then?

The same rule of the word applies to him as to others; but more than anything else let him attend to the spirit of rich service and divine guidance within him.

Perhaps there has been too much running to and fro and whipping of oneself into

strenuous search after work with, all the time, a sense of the uselessness of it.

Then it is wise to wait, like Mary of Bethany, who “sat in the house” until the

(inner) message was brought: “The Teacher is here, and calleth thee.” An

illustration of this from a Truth student’s experience will serve best to convey the

instruction intended.

A man whose wife had been healed of a severe case of rheumatism had long been

out of work because of his appetite for drink, which had not only caused him to

be discharged from many good positions but had drawn upon him most bitter

invectives from his last employer, Wh had suffered certain losses through his

failing. The “Captain,” as he was called, swore at him and told him never to show

his face in his (the Captain’s) place again.

But through his wife’s spiritual treatments the man had been wholly healed of his

intemperance,

and all appetite for liquor had left him forever. Nevertheless as he went to and fro through the city looking for work no one would take him, because, as they

said:

“You said before that you had sworn off and would never drink again. We cannot

trust you.”

The wife was trying to help with her word, but she was young in the thought, and needing more instruction, she came to me to ask what to do next.

“He has gone everywhere he knows,” she said, “and is ready to go more, although he feels it will not be any use and there must be another way.”

Since he was beginning to get this feeling, I said:

“Now he is ready to ‘stand . . . still, and see the salvation of Jehovah.’ Let him not go out of the house again to look for work unless he has a strong leading from

within, but let him speak the word:

"I have my true position. I am now in my right work.”

The man did so. It required fortitude and strength of character to abide by it. But he knew enough of the principles of Truth to wait and trust.

In a day or so the mail brought a letter from the old “Captain”—to whom he had

not had the temerity to go after the terrible dismissal he had received—which

was couched in polite language, saying that he had heard that he (the man) had

been looking for a position, and that there was an opening

in his old place if he desired to come back. He took the old position, where he remained for many years, until he finally went into business for himself.

ENRICHING QUALITY OF TRUE SERVICE

Fill the heart and mind with desire to serve, regardless of whether there be

recognition of your value or just recompense for your good work, and there will

gather within you a rich quality, the presence of which can always be sensed by a

man of large outlook, making him respect your willingness to serve even while

ignoring other desirable qualities.

A successful man in Vancouver, who was attending a prosperity course that I was giving in that city, furnished me with an example of the success of this method in

his own experience as an employer: A few days before, as he was loading or rather superintending the loading of a great number of barges with lumber, two

men came to him,

fused. This was nothing uncommon and would have passed unnoticed but for two

incidents. The first was that both men did the same thing, though strangers to

each other. After receiving the short, quick dismissal the first man went and sat

on a pile of lumber to watch the workers; the second man

did the same thing, sitting down near the first one.

As a great load was being swung around by a derrick, it began slipping, and the foreman shouted for the other men to come and take a hand. Some were excited, some were slow, and as the foreman called for more help the second man to ask

for work sprang forward and gave his aid --and then continued at work for the rest of the day. At the close of the day the foreman touched him on the shoulder

and said:

"Come tommorrow, my man. I want men like you." He gavehim a job the next

daywith the thought that he would keep an eye on him, while t he first applicant

was lost to him like a pebble dropped among many others.

In the midst of all the success that comes to us in our worldly business, let us

never forget that we came to this earth on one special errand alone, and so far as

we perform this errand we are really succcessful.

Truly there is but one business in all God's world, and that is to prove our own divinity and the divinity of the whole race, at the same time proving that God is

all there really is.