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WHAT THIS BOOK TEACHES
The aphorism, "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he,"
not only embraces the whole of a man's being, but is so comprehensive as to reach out to every condition and circumstance
of his life. A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.
Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes himself to be the
creature of outside conditions, but when he realizes that he is a creative power, and that he may command the hidden soil and seeds of
his being out of which circumstances grow, he then becomes the rightful master of himself.
Every thought-seed sown or allowed to fall into the mind, and to take root
there, produces its own, blossoming sooner or later into act, and bearing its own fruitage of opportunity and circumstance. Good thoughts
bear good fruit, bad thoughts bad fruit.
Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve
themselves; they therefore remain bound. The man who does not shrink from self-crucifixion can never fail to accomplish the object upon
which his heart is set. This is as true of earthly as of heavenly things. Even the man whose sole object is to acquire wealth must be
prepared to make great personal sacrifices before he can accomplish his object; and how much more so he who would realize a strong and
well-poised life?
Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts and
actions can never produce good results. This is but saying that nothing can come from corn but corn, nothing from nettles but nettles.
Men understand this law in the natural world, and work with it; but few understand it in the mental and moral world (though its operation
there is just as simple and undeviating), and they, therefore, do not co-operate with it.
Disease and health, like circumstances, are rooted in thought. Sickly
thoughts will express themselves through a sickly body. Thoughts of fear have been known to kill a man as speedily as a bullet,
and they are continually killing thousands of people just as surely though less rapidly. The people who live in fear of disease
are the people who get it. Anxiety quickly demoralizes the whole body, and lays it open to the, entrance of disease; while impure
thoughts, even if not physically indulged, will soon shatter the nervous system.
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