So far as the Success Circle is concerned, the results reported are almost marvelous, speaking from the ordinary standpoint. Hundreds of members are reporting restored health, and as many more report an increase in their business success and prosperity.
Of course, all of them do not get results, and we frequently receive letters from some who feel quite discouraged. From the latter, however, we often receive later letters showing that the tide has turned, and that the first-mentioned letters were written in that darkness which so often just precedes the rising of the sun.
Many expect results at once, forgetting that the Law does not work in that way. They are not willing to plant the seed-thought and ‘carefully watch and water it and allow it to grow naturally and steadily as does the plant. They want to “rush” things and frequently spoil the whole thing by their haste and anxiety. Anxiety often acts as Fear, and, in fact, it is a sort of Fear-thought.
When people learn to understand the workings of the law, we will not hear so many reports of this kind, and we will have a still greater number of favorable reports.
Then again, people so often insist upon having Success come in their way —in some particular way that they imagine to be the right and only one. They do not know that the Law works in its own way, and which way is always the best, and if one insists upon it working some other way he is really hindering and resisting the Law, and the result is frequently a complete smash-up of preconceived notions and carefully arranged plans. The Law will give you Success if you trust it, but it will only do on its own terms and in its own way. Don’t forget this.
And then again, many wish to use the Law to force other people to do things to suit the first party. This is no way to get the benefit of the Law. The moment you wish to force other people to do things in your special way that moment the Law will act in behalf of the other party, and you will get a very different kind of result from that which you had expected. When you learn to mind your own business and allow the other fellow to do the same, then you may call on the Law to help you, and not before.
Who are you, anyhow, to assume that your way is right and the other man’s is wrong? It’s no wonder that the Law raps some of you so sharply over the knuckles. Serves you right, and teaches you a lesson. Don’t meddle with the other man, unless it is to do him a good turn or to lend him a helping hand, and that’s not meddling.
The Law is not favorable to Pharisees, and if you are one of that kind of people, you and the law are not working together. Think over these things a little, and maybe you will see why certain things did not turn out as you expected. Don’t start in to “reform” all your neighbors and family—maybe you are in need of reforming yourselves. MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS—and you’ll be kept busy.
The watchword for this month is a strong one. When you repeat it, think of the meaning of the words, and do not repeat them like a parrot or a phonograph. Seems to me that I am in a scolding humor this afternoon—it must be because some of you need it, and the Law is using me in that way for your own good. In that case, it is not I who am trying to “reform” you, but the Law itself, for I never try to reform anyone unless they ask me and are willing to take the sand-paper treatment that usually awaits them during the reforming process, even if I am apt to pour oil on their wounds afterward.
The watchword for this month is:
“I MANIFEST LIFE, HEALTH, ENERGY, GROWTH AND POWER”
By William Atkinson – “New Thought, The Monthly Journal for the Psychic Club” (June 1902)