A Lecture Delivered at Hotel Brighton, Washington, DC., September 4, 1914 by Harriet Hale Rix.
The world is being educated, as never before, to recognize the truth about prosperity. The world is demanding more today of the noble and ideal, of honesty in all financial dealings, than ever before. We are going through a very critical time and those who know most about the truth in connection with prosperity, success and kindred subjects will pass through this crisis with the least proportion of unrest and sense of loss. The more materialistic, those of the commercial world who must have money in order to feel rich, will suffer most from panic, the disturbance and pressure.
But as we go through these critical times, we are purified and cleansed, especially if we try to think correctly of that which appears to our disadvantage. I would like to make a statement here at the very beginning and have you entertain it tonight in the silence, and plant this statement, this idea, in your heart as you would a seed, to grow. It is this: That the more difficult the situation is, the higher you will rise if you think correctly about it. Let us make a familiar and close communication with the heart of it, so that in the future when we may need to be strong under great pressure or temptation we may through this correct thinking about it be blessed and comforted.
This is an excellent rule and true of all our activities and especially of prosperity, that as you think correctly about a thing, you are master of the situation and no evil in it nor loss nor limitation can hold or bind you. But also you will have need to philosophize about what is the correct, the right thinking, or what the highest consciousness is about a subject. I believe that the only answer here must be to think as God thinks about it. We cannot go beyond this and to think about an experience as God thinks about it is victory.
Right thinking is health, joy, freedom, prosperity. Prosperity, as I said last night, does not consist in the things you possess — in the money you have in bank. In fact, we might say from a very free standpoint, that if you absolutely understand prosperity you have no need of any bank account. Prosperity is a way, a mode, of thinking. So is poverty. You are poor if you class yourself this way, and you are rich if you can think rich thoughts, thoughts that are constructive, optimistic, unlimited — these instantly crown you successful.
The mentality must first be rich towards God — rich in God-knowledge and consciousness. I cannot think of wealth and prosperity and success as a lasting possession to those who are callous regarding the spiritual life. Dr. Bucke, who studied cosmic consciousness for over thirty years, states that in all his examinations of men and women he has never come across a single case of cosmic consciousness where the individual was bent on making money; whose whole conception of life was accumulation. This is a law. You cannot love God and love money. You cannot both work for a great ideal and work for selfish ends, for money or a living.
It is a mistake to work for a living. To work this way is to be a slave under dominion to the laws of slavery. Never work for a living. How can you gain a life? Life is! Vou cannot pay for it. You have no price to give in exchange for life, for your breath and your being. You are not here to work by strenuous effort to make life. You are here under the blessing of God to live a life of wholesome, loving kindness, of success and good will towards each other and the bringing out of your own nature, the divine self. God lives you every moment. If you are conscious that God is your very life and being you will not work to express it in the terms of mortal consciousness, in dollars and cents and salary. You will no longer serve the old-world conception of prosperity. “What you do you will do with your might in the service of Principle, like Brother Lawrence — he did not work for a living, he worked to express God by living in so attractive a way as to draw other men to the Divine Life! The kitchen of that monastery where he cooked was more magnetic than any other part of the whole concern. He was rich towards God and man, not like an ox driven by the duties demanded of him. He was a man serving a great Principle and he lived in security.
You are useful to God as you are emptied of self and keep from worrying, fearing and fretting about today, tomorrow or yesterday. Your life is inspired and inspiring all about you. Whoever comes in contact with an inspired soul realizes the beauty of it . The Rich Mentality is the inspiration of life. I will say something about that presently, but for the moment I will affirm this, that the rich mentality is so full of awakened consciousness, so absolutely certain of the Truth, the Ideal and the Real, that it never fears poverty. It is not being hindered by any effort to fight poverty, or lack, or want. It is all love, all peace, because it is the love of recognized good.
Now the old life of poverty may be described as it is in Genesis, the curse, the old Adamic curse on man, that he shall work by the sweat of his brow, and the race has considered this law as springing from the great mind of God , the great mind of Wisdom . But we recognize that this is not the design of the Most High; it is an idea brought about through the mind of man, under the belief that he has fallen into sin and must be punished and, after utterly paying the price, enter into paradise. This is not the attitude as we find it in the quickened character. If you are realizing inwardly that you are the Son of God you will take the stand of Jesus Christ and throw off the yoke of the old curse and refuse to work by the sweat of your brow. You know that the lesser laws are fulfilled in the great law that sets man in tune with the Infinite. Because he loves God first, his Divinity, he is set free from every law that limits. It Is the only law that sets man really free — to love with all one’s mind and soul and strength, and to exercise this love toward one’s fellow beings — to love your neighbor as your God, or as your Divine Self .
Thus is man introduced to himself as he finds the Man who is really rich. He begins to realize that he is not poor in spirit but rich in wisdom, God being his mind, his intelligence, his thinking power, and he is governed and guided and controlled by the Rich Mentality. He does not groan and moan, and fear poverty. Nor does he prepare for a future that will lack anything good so long as he knows but one Provider, One Inexhaustible Presence. For that faith closely allies him with this Great Spirit, active and living with him. Therefore, he does not prepare for old age with its sorrow and lack so unattractive. He intends to become more attractive, for the older he grows the nearer he should be to the Great Center, and the Great White Light of Being.