CHAPTER I

Prosperity through Spirituality

Both riches and honor come of you, and you rule over all; and in your hand is power and might; and in your hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto

all.

IT IS NOW ESTABLISHED in the minds of many people that health of body is a legitimate result of spiritual knowledge and eventually will be one of the signs of

a practical follower of Christ; but these same people, many of them, find it

difficult to believe that health of circumstances can be demonstrated in the same

way and is as legitimate and true a sign of the understanding of spiritual law as

the healing of the body. Considering riches with a fair, unprejudiced mind, we

shall understand why it is that they have been largely in the possession of the

unspiritual instead of the children of God, to whom the heritage rightly belongs.

WEALTH REFUSED

Worldly riches have been feared, despised, condemned, and even hated by

spiritual aspirants, because of ignorance of how to be in them and yet not of

them, how to possess them and not be possessed by them. Doubtless this

attitude of repudiating and

ignoring wealth is less deceiving than the other error: greed and worship of money and the fear of losing riches. But the really wise avoid both attitudes

through knowing worldly wealth to be but a reflection of the real, the spiritual riches that must be sought first, last, and always. Having found the riches of

heaven, you cannot escape the riches of earth unless you purposely repudiate

them.

THE NEW CANAAN

The rich state of being is the Promised Land that belongs to the people of God. Its occupancy by the selfish and carnal is like the Hittites, Canaanites, and others possessing the Promised Land at the time the Israelites began their march, under Moses, out of Egypt to regain their own country. The land, according to the spies

(Num. 13), was most desirable, "a land flowing with milk and honey." This

innocent land was sweet and pure and goodly even though exploited by the

heathen. So are worldly riches: impersonal, good, useful, commanding the

world's respect.

Let us be true and not despise that which symbolizes a divine blessing, nor yet on

the other hand lust for that which is not the real riches; for "how hardly shall

they that have riches enter the kingdom of God!" which is a saying that applies to

the eager, anxious poor as well as the foolish rich. It is not

money itself that is the root of all evil; money as such is nothing but a symbol. It

is the love of money that makes the terrible trouble in families and between

friends and spoils the candidate for spiritual power and illumination.

THE RIGHT ATTITUDE OF MIND

The first step in prosperous attainment is to have the right attitude of mind and

heart toward worldly wealth; to see that prosperity and spirituality must be

wedded here upon the earth and that man's must be the word that makes the

marriage an accomplished fact. Too long has prosperity been looked upon as

material and carnal, a Dame Fortune, a scarlet woman, fickle and false, like the

untrue wife of Hosea, who forgot the source of her riches. "She did not know that

I gave her the grain, and the new wine, and the oil, and multiplied unto her silver

and gold." Too long has spirituality, like an austere monk, ascetic, condemnatory,

impractical, and exclusive, repudiated "riches" and not known that whom "God

hath joined" man cannot keep asunder. That old spirituality is dead. All hail to

the new, which does not put off the kingdom to a time after death but realizes

that here and now, today, is the place and time for the riches of the kingdom to

be made manifest.

THE WEDDING OF SPIRITUALITY AND GOOD FORTUNE

Man, like an officiating priest, marries these, the spirituality within and the

wealth without, which have seemed to be two and even to have been in

opposition, (1) by believing in their union and (2) by revealing that in its true

character prosperity is spiritual and spirituality prospers.

Prosperity is of God, like life, health, and strength. It is man's privilege to use

these divine gifts as he wills; he may use his strength to knock another down; he

may use his health to impose his appetites on others; but these uses do not

lessen the fact that strength and health are the gifts of God.

Man may misuse his prosperity, may derive it from sources dishonest and selfish,

but those are his mistakes; the truth is still that all that is universally good in

itself is of the same origin, God. And prosperity originates with the all-prosperous

One, who makes all things good and very good and never knows failure.

There is not one good pursued by man that, when regarded in its purity and from the highest viewpoint, cannot be identified with God. "I am Jehovah your God,

who brought you out of the ... house of bondage." I am the Lord, your good, that

delivered you from that great trouble, saved you from that mistake, failure, or

other liability --the evil that beset you.

PROSPERITY AND GOD ARE ONE

Prosperity is the presence of God. It is that expression of comfort, power, beauty,

and freedom which is always associated with the kingdom of heaven. Whenever

the advent of the Christ reign is described, the language of earthly riches is used,

and the Scriptures teem with heavenly attributes and comparisons, drawn from

the prosperity of men of the world.

Identifying prosperity with God, we see this to be the truth of its being, that it is

omnipresent and universal. Being everywhere, you do not need to go from place

to place to get it. You find it within. Then you carry it with you - you are yourself

prosperity. Like the poet Whitman you can say,

"I seek not fortune, I myself am good fortune."

You find it in the business you have now. You fulfill the promise declared of him

whose "delight is in the law of Jehovah; And on his law doth he meditate day and

night ... And whatsoever he does shall prosper."

PROSPERITY UNIVERSAL AND UNCHANGEABLE

Being universal, the prosperity that is one with God expresses itself in everything

and through everyone. It manifests itself in your life as abundant good luck. All

the kingdoms of the world yield their best to you. In the vegetable kingdom your

plants are

healthy, your crops are abundant and not subject to drought, frost, pest, or

blight; in the mineral kingdom the gold and silver, the treasures in the rocks,

diamonds, coal, and oil, are uncovered to you; in the animal kingdom your

cattle increase and keep in fine condition; in the kingdom of man you are

magnetic, blessed with friends, with initiative, with executive ability and

efficiency.

Prosperity, seen to be one with God, is not temporal and changeable. It is

eternal. It is not limited in its expression. It is not only manifest in the ordinary

ways of the world but it also includes "prosperity" in health and in strength, in

honors and in pleasures, in love and in learning.

The prosperity of the worldly-minded has the proverbial wings, and there is

always a skeleton at the feast of the unprincipled rich. How superstitious they

are! They build fine houses and hasten to move into them, because forsooth!

rich men have died before they could dwell in their new houses! How fearful

they are of competitors! How discontented with the riches they have! How little

hold they have upon health and life and their loved ones! Riches without

spirituality are Dead Sea fruit. The substance and lasting joy of riches is a

knowledge of Truth.

Yes, the prosperity of the worldly-minded and unprincipled has wings.